Noninvasive localization of the site of origin of paced cardiac activation in human by means of a 3-D heart model.

A recently developed heart-model-based localization approach is experimentally evaluated in noninvasively localizing the site of origin of cardiac activation in a patient with a pacemaker. The heart-torso model of the patient was constructed from the contrast ultrafast computed tomography images. The site of initial paced activation in the patient was quantitatively localized and compared with the tip position of the pacemaker lead. The localization error of the inverse estimation was found to be 5.2 mm with respect to the true lead tip position. The promising result of this pilot experimental study suggests the feasibility of localizing the site of origin of cardiac activation in an experimental setting. The heart-model-based localization approach may become an alternative tool in localizing the site of origin of cardiac activation.