A Patient-Specific Single Equivalent Dipole Model

Sophisticated models for the electrocardiographic inverse problem are available, but their reliance on imaging data and large numbers of electrodes limit their use. Simple models such as the single equivalent dipole model (SEDM) therefore remain relevant. We developed a probabilistic approach to the equivalent unbounded uniform single dipole problem and developed a natural extension to the bounded nonuniform case that relies on a patient-specific statistical inference of the propagation mechanism between the location of the dipole and the electrode locations. The two models were tested on data simulated with a detailed heart-torso model with four different activation sequences and three different sets of tissue characteristics. We observed a throughout enhancement of the ability to reconstruct the ECG of the patient-specific model when compared to the uniform unbounded dipole model.