Effects of Body Surface Potential Mapping Lead Layouts in the Analysis of Atrial Signals

Non-invasive identification and localization of arrhythmic driving sources using body surface potential mapping (BSPM) can be an important tool for patient’s therapy planning. This study aims to quantify the impact of atrial tachycardia (AT), flutter (AFL) and fibrillation (AF) characterization by reducing the number of BSPM leads. 19 realistic computer simulations with 567 leads (high resolution – HR) have been used to characterize the arrhythmias with respect to the dominant frequency (DF) and phase singularity point (SP) distributions. Data was reshaped to 2D representations, interpolated to 30 x 65 grids and band-pass filtered (fc = 2 and 20 Hz). DF maps were generated combining Welch periodogram and activation detection with wavelet transform modulus maxima in each lead. Phase was obtained with the Hilbert transform on signals filtered around the highest DF (±1 Hz); dynamics of SPs were analyzed using histograms (heatmaps, HM) and connecting SPs along time (filaments). The analyses were reproduced for 6 layouts with 16 to 252 leads and results were compared using different similarity measures and analyzing features extracted from the maps. Although a loss in spatial resolution is observed and individual differences might be large, results from the HR setting are translated to all lead layouts without significant differences.