Ventricular conduction stability test: a method to identify and quantify changes in whole heart activation patterns during physiological stress
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Supporting information
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
AIMS: Abnormal rate adaptation of the action potential is proarrhythmic but is difficult to measure with current electro-anatomical mapping techniques. We developed a method to rapidly quantify spatial discordance in whole heart activation in response to rate cycle length changes. We test the hypothesis that patients with underlying channelopathies or history of aborted sudden cardiac death (SCD) have a reduced capacity to maintain uniform activation following exercise. METHODS AND RESULTS: Electrocardiographical imaging (ECGI) reconstructs >1200 electrograms (EGMs) over the ventricles from a single beat, providing epicardial whole heart activation maps. Thirty-one individuals [11 SCD survivors; 10 Brugada syndrome (BrS) without SCD; and 10 controls] with structurally normal hearts underwent ECGI vest recordings following exercise treadmill. For each patient, we calculated the relative change in EGM local activation times (LATs) between a baseline and post-exertion phase using custom written software. A ventricular conduction stability (V-CoS) score calculated to indicate the percentage of ventricle that showed no significant change in relative LAT (<10 ms). A lower score reflected greater conduction heterogeneity. Mean variability (standard deviation) of V-CoS score over 10 consecutive beats was small (0.9 ± 0.5%), with good inter-operator reproducibility of V-CoS scores. Sudden cardiac death survivors, compared to BrS and controls, had the lowest V-CoS scores post-exertion (P = 0.011) but were no different at baseline (P = 0.50). CONCLUSION: We present a method to rapidly quantify changes in global activation which provides a measure of conduction heterogeneity and proof of concept by demonstrating SCD survivors have a reduced capacity to maintain uniform activation following exercise.
Date Issued
2019-09
Date Acceptance
2019-02-02
Citation
EP-Europace, 2019, 21 (9), pp.1422-1431
ISSN
1099-5129
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Start Page
1422
End Page
1431
Journal / Book Title
EP-Europace
Volume
21
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2019. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com. This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in [insert journal title] following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version Matthew J Shun-Shin, Kevin M W Leong, Fu Siong Ng, Nicholas W F Linton, Zachary I Whinnett, Michael Koa-Wing, Norman Qureshi, David C Lefroy, Sian E Harding, Phang Boon Lim, Nicholas S Peters, Darrel P Francis, Amanda M Varnava, Prapa Kanagaratnam, Ventricular conduction stability test: a method to identify and quantify changes in whole heart activation patterns during physiological stress, EP Europace, Volume 21, Issue 9, September 2019, Pages 1422–1431 is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1093/europace/euz015
Sponsor
British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
Daniel Bagshaw Memorial Trust
British Heart Foundation
British Heart Foundation
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30820561
PII: 5366944
Grant Number
PG/15/20/31339
RG/16/3/32175
n/a
FS/14/27/30752
FS/15/25/31423
Subjects
Action potential
Electrocardiographical imaging
Rate adaptation
Risk stratification
Spacial conduction heterogeneity
Sudden cardiac death
Ventricular conduction stability
Ventricular fibrillation
Ventricular tachycardia
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2019-02-28