Recent studies have shown radiation therapy (RT) ablation to be a highly promising alternativetherapy for patients with drug-refractory VT who are unable to undergo catheter-based ablation.Ideally, RT ablation is performed in conjunction with noninvasive electrophysiology (EP) imaging,such as ECG imaging (ECGI), so that the entire procedure is noninvasive; however, currentlynoninvasive EP imaging is much less accurate than RT and needs to be significantly improved torealize the full potential of RT ablation.In this project, we propose to utilize magnetocardiography (MCG) to develop an MCG imaging(MCGI) system. In comparison to ECG, MCG provides fundamental advantages for sourcelocalization and imaging due to the favorable transmission properties of magnetic signals. From apractical standpoint, MCG is more convenient because it is a contactless technique, whereas ECGIrequires application of a large array of electrodes. The proposed system will be based on arevolutionary type of magnetic sensor, known as an optically-pumped magnetometer (OPM), whichwas first brought to market by our company. OPMs are far more practical than SQUIDmagnetometers because they are smaller, less expensive, and operate at room temperature. Thiswill enable construction of an MCGI system with a conformal sensor array that covers the entire torso.The overall goal is to construct an MCGI system with improved accuracy and ease-of-use, comparedto current ECGI/MCGI systems. The Phase I aims are to 1) determine an optimal sensorconfiguration for the MCGI system based on analysis of the spatial properties of the signal, 2) designa compact magnetic shield that is patient-friendly and minimizes the space requirements of thesystem, 3) devise a strategy for rapid, accurate digitization of the sensor locations, and 4)demonstrate the feasibility of key aspects of the proposed techniques in a small study of normalsubjects.
Public Health Relevance Statement: PROJECT NARRATIVE
The goal of this program is to develop a magnetocardiography imaging system to perform
electrophysiology mapping studies in cardiac arrhythmia patients. The research can enable
noninvasive mapping and therapy in drug-refractory arrhythmia patients who cannot undergo catheter-
based procedures.
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