Analysis of the spectrum of cardiac signals during partially correlated spatiotemporal dynamics: A simulation approach

The relationship between the spectrum of cardiac signals and the spatial resolution of electrode systems has been previously investigated for highly correlated cardiac dynamics. This relationship is however less understood for partially correlated cardiac dynamics, which can be suitable to model complex arrhythmias such as fibrillation. In this study, we analyze in a 2D simulation environment the spectrum of cardiac signals induced by partially correlated dynamics. We generate cardiac dynamics of different degrees of spatiotemporal correlation and synthesize cardiac signals measured by unipolar electrodes of different spatial resolutions. We quantify the spatial resolution by the lead equivalent volume (LEV) and show that for low LEV values, the bandwidth (BW) is inversely related to the LEV whereas for higher LEV values, the BW saturates. Moreover, the LEV saturation point is lower for lower degrees of spatiotemporal correlation. Our observations could help in devising new techniques for analyzing the spectrum of cardiac signals during complex cardiac arrhythmias.