Localization of the Slow Conduction Zone During Reentrant Ventricular Tachycardia

BACKGROUND: Reentrant ventricular tachycardia is sometimes difficult to treat effectively because localizing the slow conduction zone (SCZ) for catheter ablation may be problematic. It was hypothesized that a linear relationship exists between activating wave-front acceleration and deceleration in the SCZ and, respectively, contractions and expansions of the far-field extracellular signal, which could be used for SCZ localization. METHODS AND RESULTS: To test the hypothesis, a model was developed to approximate SCZ location on the basis of the time interval between activation at the recording site and shifts in electrogram far-field deflections. Electrograms were recorded during reentry from 196 to 312 epicardial sites (canine model, 8 episodes). Activation maps of reentry were constructed to determine wave-front velocity, and piecewise linear adaptive template matching (PLATM) measured time shifts in far-field electrogram deflections. Linear trends of cycle length change often occurred during tachycardia (mean trend, +15 ms/96.8 cardiac cycles; r(2)=0.92). Alteration in the time interval for activation through the SCZ approximated the change in tachycardia cycle length (mean correspondence, 75.7%). The beginning and end times of far-field extracellular waveform time shifts measured by PLATM predicted the time from recording site activation to activation at the SCZ proximal and distal edges, respectively (mean absolute error with respect to activation mapping, 20.3 ms). CONCLUSIONS: During reentry, PLATM estimates the time interval from activation at any recording site near the circuit to SCZ activation. PLATM time intervals are convertible to arc lengths along the circuit for potentially more rapid and accurate update of a hand-held probe toward the SCZ for catheter ablation.