Application of the Karhunen-Loeve expansion to evaluate regional cardiac excitation in body surface potential maps.

The authors investigated the usefulness of the Karhunen-Loeve technique applied to body surface maps to study regional cardiac excitation. Eigenvectors were derived from the body surface potential maps of 120 healthy adults using the Karhunen-Loeve expansion theory. Then, in the maps of various types of ventricular hypertrophy, each eigenvector coefficient was calculated for a statistical comparison. The first eigenvector coefficient in early QRS and the second in mid QRS were larger in patients with asymmetrical septal hypertrophy and in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy, respectively. The third was larger in patients with right ventricular hypertrophy. In the maps of patients with previous anteroseptal myocardial infarction, the second eigenvector coefficient decreased with asynergy of the anterior to apical wall, and the first decreased with the asynergy of the interventricular septum. They conclude that some eigenvector components and coefficients at particular times in the QRS are sensitive to changes in regional cardiac excitation and that they may facilitate the detection of local excitation changes such as occur in hypertrophy or infarction.