The analysis of cardiac mapping allows investigating
the structure of ventricular fibrillation (VF). This work
analyzes regions of interest (ROI) on cardiac maps
obtained from the regularity analysis of VF records,
providing information about signal regularity at each
time instant and its spatial distribution.
Cardiac registers were obtained using a 240-
electrodes matrix located on left ventricle of isolated
rabbit heart. A Langendorff system was used to maintain
the heart perfusion. VF was induced by increased
frequencies. Two groups of records were considered:
control (G1: without physical training, N=10), and
trained (G2, N=9).
Records were processed in consecutive 4-second
segments. Regularity index (RI) was obtained for every
segment and channel. RI is a measure of similarity
degree among local activation waves for every channel.
A map with the RI value of each channel was computed
for the 82 register segments.
To analyze the spatial distribution of RI, a threshold
value was determined experimentally and applied to the
map in order to obtain the ROI. Two parameters were
calculated: ROI spatial number (ROIsn, a measure of
spatial fragmentation), and ROI spatial area (ROIsa, the
percentage of area map occupied by ROI).
In case of the time course of ROI, two additional
parameters were computed: the number of electrodes
which value had changed respect to the threshold in two
consecutive maps (ROIen, which is related with the
change size), and the cumulative absolute differences of
RI values for the electrodes which are changed (ROIed).
Obtained results for spatial analysis show that the
number of ROI is lower for trained rabbits (ROIsn; G1:
4.465±1.120; G2: 2.,227±0.623; p<0.001), but ROI
spatial area is greater than the control group (ROIsa;
G1: 76.235±5.355%; G2: 88.163±2.885%; p<0.001).
Time-course analysis shows that more electrodes change
between consecutive maps in the control group (ROIen,
G1: 22.455±6.702; G2: 13.877±2.485; p<0.001). No
significant differences were found for ROIed (G1:
18.509±6.932; G2: 18.619±4.196; n.s.).
To conclude, ROI analysis on RI maps applied to
trained and no trained rabbits groups shows that VF
cardiac response is more irregular and spatially
fragmented in no trained group. In addition, regularity
maps are more stable with time in trained group
