Impulse data models for the inverse problem of electrocardiography

TL;DR

This paper introduces a neural network approach that uses Gaussian impulse basis functions to solve the inverse problem of electrocardiography, enabling robust reconstruction of heart surface signals from body surface data.

Contribution

It proposes a novel impulse-based signal decomposition method combined with neural networks for improved inverse electrocardiography modeling.

Findings

Synthetic pulse prediction error of 9.1% RMS

Robustness to noise up to 20 dB

Accurate in-vitro pig heart HSP decomposition

Abstract

The proposed method re-frames traditional inverse problems of electrocardiography into regression problems, constraining the solution space by decomposing signals with multidimensional Gaussian impulse basis functions. Impulse HSPs were generated with single Gaussian basis functions at discrete heart surface locations and projected to corresponding BSPs using a volume conductor torso model. Both BSP (inputs) and HSP (outputs) were mapped to regular 2D surface meshes and used to train a neural network. Predictive capabilities of the network were tested with unseen synthetic and experimental data. A dense full connected single hidden layer neural network was trained to map body surface impulses to heart surface Gaussian basis functions for reconstructing HSP. Synthetic pulses moving across the heart surface were predicted from the neural network with root mean squared error of $9.1\pm1.4$%. Predicted signals were robust to noise up to 20 dB and errors due to displacement and rotation of the heart within the torso were bounded and predictable. A shift of the heart 40 mm toward the spine resulted in a 4\% increase in signal feature localization error. The set of training impulse function data could be reduced and prediction error remained bounded. Recorded HSPs from in-vitro pig hearts were reliably decomposed using space-time Gaussian basis functions. Predicted HSPs for left-ventricular pacing had a mean absolute error of $10.4\pm11.4$ ms. Other pacing scenarios were analyzed with similar success. Conclusion: Impulses from Gaussian basis functions are potentially an effective and robust way to train simple neural network data models for reconstructing HSPs from decomposed BSPs. The HSPs predicted by the neural network can be used to generate activation maps that non-invasively identify features of cardiac electrical dysfunction and can guide subsequent treatment options.