Numerical simulation of electrocardiograms for full cardiac cycles in healthy and pathological conditions

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive numerical model for simulating full cardiac electrical cycles and body surface potentials, incorporating realistic anatomy and various pathological conditions, to improve ECG analysis and medical diagnostics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation framework combining surface atrial modeling, bidomain equations, and realistic torso coupling for accurate ECG generation in health and disease.

Findings

Successfully simulated ECGs for multiple cardiac conditions

Validated simulation results with medical criteria

Demonstrated potential for wearable ECG signal generation

Abstract

This work is dedicated to the simulation of full cycles of the electrical activity of the heart and the corresponding body surface potential. The model is based on a realistic torso and heart anatomy, including ventricles and atria. One of the specificities of our approach is to model the atria as a surface, which is the kind of data typically provided by medical imaging for thin volumes. The bidomain equations are considered in their usual formulation in the ventricles, and in a surface formulation on the atria. Two ionic models are used: the Courtemanche-Ramirez-Nattel model on the atria, and the "Minimal model for human Ventricular action potentials" (MV) by Bueno-Orovio, Cherry and Fenton in the ventricles. The heart is weakly coupled to the torso by a Robin boundary condition based on a resistor- capacitor transmission condition. Various ECGs are simulated in healthy and pathological conditions (left and right bundle branch blocks, Bachmann's bundle block, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome). To assess the numerical ECGs, we use several qualitative and quantitative criteria found in the medical literature. Our simulator can also be used to generate the signals measured by a vest of electrodes. This capability is illustrated at the end of the article.