Simulations of magnetocardiographic signals using realistic geometry models of the heart and torso

Although the first measurement of the cardiac magnetic field was reported almost half a century ago magnetocardiography (MCG) is not yet widely used as a clinical diagnostic technique. With the development of a new generation of magnetoelectric sensors it is believed that MCG will become widely accepted in the clinical diagnosis. Our goal is to build a computer-based tool for medical diagnosis and to use it for the clarification of open electro-physiological questions. Here we present results from modelling of the cardiac electrical activity and computation of the generated magnetic field. For the simulations we use MRT-based anatomical models of the human atria and ventricles where the shape of the action potential is determined by ionic currents passing through the cardiac cell membranes. The monodomain reaction-diffusion equation is chosen for the description of the heart's electrical activity. This equation is solved for the transmembrane voltage which is in turn used to calculate current densities at discrete time instants. In subsequent simulations these current densities represent primary sources of magnetostatic fields arising from a volume conduction problem. In these simulations the heart is placed in a realistic torso model where the lungs are also considered. Both, the volume conduction problem as well as the reaction-diffusion problem are modelled using Finite-Element techniques.