Correlation between P-wave morphology and origin of atrial focal tachycardia--insights from realistic models of the human atria and torso.

Atrial arrhythmias resulting from abnormally rapid focal activity in the atria may be reflected in an altered P-wave morphology (PWM) in the ECG. Although clinically important, detailed relationships between PWM and origins of atrial focal excitations have not been established. To study such relationships, we developed computational models of the human atria and torso. The model simulation results were used to evaluate an extant clinical algorithm for locating the origin of atrial focal points from the ECG. The simulations showed that the algorithm was practical and could predict the atrial focal locations with 85% accuracy. We proposed a further refinement of the algorithm to distinguish between focal locations within the large atrial bundles.