Extracorporeal magnetic fields generated by internal bioelectric sources

The first magnetocardiogram was published one decade ago. Subsequent development of magnetocardiography is discussed, including experimental techniques, theoretical aspects, and clinical significance. The heart is modelled by 20 current dipoles in a homogeneous conducting sphere. Electric and magnetic scalar potentials at the surface of the sphere are calculated. These data, perturbed by noise, are used to solve the inverse problem, i.e., to determine the moments of the multiple dipole array which would generate the external potentials. The accuracy of the inverse solution is improved when a combination of electric and magnetic data are used rather than electric data alone.