Key result
Low-cost optical mapping system under ~$1,000 captures accurate electrophysiology measurements in rodents.
Why the study?
High-speed CMOS cameras capable of optical registration of action potential propagation for cardiac optical mapping are generally very costly.
A low-cost (<$1,000) open-source optical mapping system provides sufficient resolution for accurate electrophysiological measurements in rodent hearts, offering an accessible alternative to expensive specialized equipment.
Fluorescent imaging with voltage- or calcium-sensitive dyes, known as optical mapping, is one of the indispensable modern techniques to study cardiac or neural electrophysiology, unsurpassed by temporal and spatial resolution. High-speed CMOS cameras capable of optical registration of action potential propagation are in general very costly. We present a complete solution priced below US$1,000 (including camera and lens) at the moment of publication with an open-source image acquisition and processing software. We demonstrate that the iDS UI-3130CP rev.2 camera we used in this study is capable of 200x200 977 frames per second (FPS) action potential recordings from rodent hearts, with the signal-to-noise-ratio of a conditioned signal of 16 ± 10. A comparison with a specialized MiCAM Ultimate-L camera has shown that signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) while lower is sufficient for accurate measurements of AP waveform, conduction velocity (± 0.04 m/s) and action potential duration (± 7ms) in mouse and rat hearts. We used 4-aminopyridine to prolong the action potential duration in mouse heart, thus demonstrating that the proposed system is adequate for pharmacological studies.
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Rybashlykov et al. (2022) studied Cardiac electrophysiology. Low-cost optical mapping system (iDS UI-3130CP rev.2 camera) vs. Specialized MiCAM Ultimate-L camera was evaluated on Signal-to-noise ratio, conduction velocity, and action potential duration. A low-cost optical mapping system (<$1,000) using the iDS UI-3130CP rev.2 camera achieved 977 FPS recordings with an SNR of 16 ± 10, sufficient for accurate electrophysiology measurements in rodents.
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