Research Projects

A man was seen in the street one night, looking for something on the ground by the light of the street lamp.

"What are you looking for ?"
"My door key."
"Is this where you lost it?"
"I don't know."
"Then why are you looking here?"
"Because here I can see"

Weizsacker, C.F.
"Some Fundamental Problems of Natural Science."
Presented at Geigy Bicentenary Scientific Day Report, June 3, 1958, Basle

Data-dependent Modeling of the Electrical Activity of the Heart

The overall objective of my research is to improve our ability to extract useful information about the state of the heart from the bioelectric fields that it generates. Based on experimental measurements of electric potentials in the heart and on the body surface, my goal is to develop data-dependent models for integrative analysis of basic mechanism of cardiac rhythm. Specifically, we want to understand impulse propagation and the spatial and temporal characteristics of electric potential distribution associated with propagation.

The following research projects, which are to build lights along the way for finding that key or the truth in the heart, have been conducted at the CVRTI. Rob MacLeod is my supervisor, and the flash light for me whenever I was in the dark.

• Interpolation of electric potential fields in the heart;
• Three-dimensional activation mapping in the ventricular muscle: interpolation of activation times;
• Electric potential and current fields in the thorax under normal and ischemic conditions;
• Ischemia induced electric potential and current changes;
• Temporal and spatial information in electrograms and electrocardiograms using statistical signal processing techniques.

Quan Ni