ECGI vest developed at UCL being worn by a UCL medical student. Credit: UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science/James Tye
Key points:
- Researchers developed an electrocardiographic imaging vest that maps the heart’s electrical activity in fine detail.
- The team combined electrical data from the vest’s sensors with images of the heart taken by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate 3D digital models of the heart and its electrical activity.
- The vest has the potential to be a screening tool to identify life-threatening heart rhythms and predict sudden cardiac death risk.
A new study, published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, details the development of a vest that maps the heart’s electrical activity in fine detail. This vest may be used to better identify people at high risk of sudden cardiac death.
Until now, detailed mapping of the heart’s electrical activity was rare because it required a catheter inserted into the heart cavity or relied on costly and time-consuming single-use devices.
Researchers developed an electrocardiographic imaging (ECGI) vest that is re-usable and efficient, needing only five minutes per patient. They combined electrical data from the vest’s 256 sensors with detailed images of the heart taken by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to generate 3D digital models of the heart and its electrical activity.
Before the vest, the standard method to monitor the heart’s electrical activity was the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG). This technique has barely changed in 50 years and cannot predict how the risk of sudden cardiac death might be affected by a particular structural feature or abnormality.
The vest technology allows clinicians to correlate imaging with the heart’s electrical system. As a result, it can help clinicians identify people in need of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)—a device that monitors heart rhythm and shocks the heart back into normal rhythm.
“We believe the vest we have developed could be a quick and cost-effective screening tool,” explained Gaby Captur of the UCL Institute of Cardiovascular Science. “The rich electrical information it provides could help us better identify people’s risk of life-threatening heart rhythms in the future.”
Currently, researchers are using the vest to map the hearts of people with diseases such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy. In the future, researchers plan to investigate biomarkers obtained via the vest’s ECGI to confirm if they are associated with higher risk outcomes.