A Portable Diagnostic Device for Cardiac Magnetic Field Mapping

TL;DR

This paper introduces a portable, cost-effective magnetocardiography device capable of rapid cardiac magnetic field assessment in noisy hospital settings, demonstrating effective detection of depolarisation signals.

Contribution

The development of an inexpensive, portable magnetocardiography device optimized for unshielded environments and rapid deployment in emergency settings.

Findings

Sufficient sensitivity ($104fT/ ootHz$ at 10Hz) for cycle-averaged MCG

Able to measure depolarisation signals in unshielded environments

Unable to reliably detect repolarisation signals

Abstract

In this paper we present a portable magnetocardiography device. The focus of this development was delivering a rapid assessment of chest pain in an emergency department. The aim was therefore to produce an inexpensive device that could be rapidly deployed in a noisy unshielded ward environment. We found that induction coil magnetometers with a coil design optimized for magnetic field mapping possess sufficient sensitivity ($104fT/\sqrt{Hz}$ noise floor at 10Hz) and response ($813fT/\mu V$ at 10Hz) for cycle averaged magnetocardiography and are able to measure depolarisation signals in an unshielded environment. We were unable to observe repolarisation signals to a reasonable fidelity. We present the design of the induction coil sensor array and signal processing routine along with data demonstrating performance in a hospital environment.