OPTICAL MAPPING SYSTEM WITH DUAL HIGH SPEED VIDEO CAMERAS FOR OBSERVATION OF THREE DIMENSIONAL CARDIAC EXCITATION PROPAGATION DURING ARRHYTHMIA

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Optical mapping has been widely used to investigate the mechanism of induction and termination of cardiac arrhythmia such as ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia, that are measure causes of sudden cardiac death. In this study, we have the new optical mapping system of cardiac excitation having the following functions :(1)The system can monitor cardiac excitation in wider area of the cardiac surface using two high speed digital video cameras.It can track reentrant activities showing meandering with high temporal and spatial resolution.(2)The system takes three dimensional shape of the heart into consideration to evaluate accurately conduction parameters such as conduction velocity and curvature of wave-front.(3)The system can extract the direction and velocity of wave front or wave-back of the cardiac excitation propagation by means of image processing. This image analysis method is basis for development of adaptive electrical stimulation system that can deliver electric stimuli on arbitrary position and arbitrary time phase depending on the actual cardiac excitation.(4)The system is equipped with electrical stimulation device with transparent electrode module that enables observation of cardiac excitation near the stimulation electrode. The system can monitor virtual electrode polarization phenomena near the stimulation point electrode immediate after the application of the stimuli with higher temporal and spatial resolution than previously reported systems can(5)The system can identify the specific repolarization phase of cardiac tissue at a certain point on cardiac surface in real time, and can deliver the electric stimuli depending on this repolarization phase identification.These engineering achievements enable development of new experimental methodologies that can be applied to cardiac arrhythmia research.