In silico pace-mapping: prediction of left vs. right outflow tract origin in idiopathic ventricular arrhythmias with patient-specific electrophysiological simulations

Aims: A pre-operative non-invasive identification of the site of origin (SOO) of outflow tract ventricular arrhythmias (OTVAs) is important to properly plan radiofrequency ablation procedures. Although some algorithms based on electrocardiograms (ECGs) have been developed to predict left vs. right ventricular origins, their accuracy is still limited, especially in complex anatomies. The aim of this work is to use patient-specific electrophysiological simulations of the heart to predict the SOO in OTVA patients.

Methods and results: An in silico pace-mapping procedure was designed and used on 11 heart geometries, generating for each case simulated ECGs from 12 clinically plausible SOO. Subsequently, the simulated ECGs were compared with patient ECG data obtained during the clinical tachycardia using the 12-lead correlation coefficient (12-lead ρ). Left ventricle (LV) vs. right ventricle (RV) SOO was estimated by computing the LV/RV ratio for each patient, obtained by dividing the average 12-lead ρ value of the LV- and RV-SOO simulated ECGs, respectively. Simulated ECGs that had virtual sites close to the ablation points that stopped the arrhythmia presented higher correlation coefficients. The LV/RV ratio correctly predicted LV vs. RV SOO in 10/11 cases; 1.07 vs. 0.93 P < 0.05 for 12-lead ρ.

Conclusion: The obtained results demonstrate the potential of the developed in silico pace-mapping technique to complement standard ECG for the pre-operative planning of complex ventricular arrhythmias.