Sensing Zone Electrode Configuration for Cardiac Mapping
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current electrocardiographic mapping technologies face challenges in accurately obtaining spatially relevant electrical information from specific regions of the heart, often requiring a full complement of electrodes and struggling with the impact of bad channels on data accuracy.
Innovation Solution
The development of a sensing zone approach that identifies a specific set of body surface electrodes necessary for accurate electrocardiographic mapping, allowing for a reduced set of electrodes to be used, and providing a surrogate estimate of electrical activity for selected regions of interest, while detecting and addressing bad channels within the sensing zone.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a full complement of electrodes is used for electrocardiographic mapping, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The body surface is divided into multiple sensing zones, each associated with specific regions of the heart. Instead of using a full complement of electrodes uniformly across the entire body surface, the patent segments the sensing function into discrete zones (e.g., right arm, left arm, right leg, left leg, chest zones) that can be independently configured and optimized for specific cardiac regions of interest.
Solution Approach 2:
Different sensing zones are assigned different electrode configurations and densities based on their specific functional requirements. The patent applies local quality by tailoring the electrode arrangement in each sensing zone to optimize measurement of specific cardiac regions, rather than using a uniform electrode distribution across all zones.
2Reliability
If more electrodes are used to cover all body surface areas, then reliability of electrical activity detection is improved, but loss of substance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes unnecessary electrodes from the full complement set by identifying and eliminating redundancy. Through the sensing zone approach, the system determines the minimum necessary electrode configuration for each zone, removing excess electrodes that do not contribute meaningfully to the measurement of specific cardiac regions, thereby reducing material usage and processing requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies partial action by using only the necessary portion of the full electrode complement. Instead of deploying all available electrodes, the system selectively activates and processes data from electrodes within defined sensing zones, achieving sufficient measurement reliability with a subset of electrodes rather than requiring the complete set.
3Device complexity
If a reduced set of electrodes is used, then device complexity is reduced, but measurement precision deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-defining sensing zones and their associated electrode configurations before actual measurements are taken. The system establishes the optimal electrode arrangement for each sensing zone in advance, based on anatomical and electrical field considerations, ensuring that the reduced electrode set is strategically positioned to maintain measurement precision for specific cardiac regions.
Solution Approach 2:
The sensing zone framework provides universality by creating a flexible, multi-functional electrode configuration system. The same reduced electrode set can be used across different patients and applications by adjusting the definition and boundaries of sensing zones, allowing the system to maintain measurement precision for various cardiac regions of interest without requiring custom electrode arrangements for each case.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods are disclosed to determine one or more sensing zones on a body surface for electrocardiographic mapping of a region of interest associated with the heart. The sensing zone can be utilized to facilitate acquisition, processing and mapping of electrical activity for the corresponding region of interest. In other examples, an application-specific arrangement of electrodes can also be provided based on the sensing zone that is determined for the region of interest.