Magnetocardiography Based Spatiotemporal Correlation Analysis is Superior to Conventional ECG Analysis for Identifying Myocardial Injury

Electrocardiogram (ECG) particular from tiny, non Q-wave myocardial infarction may lack striking infarct pattern. Spatiotemporal correlation analysis (SCA) of multichannel magnetocardiogram (MCG) is a high-resolution “magnifying glass” to analyze homogeneity of repolarization. SCA involves full 4D spatiotemporal information to identify abnormalities as empirically done by eye in conventional ECG—but on an advanced level of analysis. We compared the discriminatory performance of SCA to ECG analysis in identifying myocardial infarction. Eleven SCA parameters were taken from signal averaged 31-channel MCG and compared to infarct indicators of ECG’s in 178 subjects: 108 patients (76 males, mean age 62 years) after myocardial infarction (16–64 d) and 70 controls (36 males, mean age 46 years). SCA improves the detection of myocardial injury: in 72.5% ECG (sensitivity 68.6%, specificity 56%) and in 80.2% SCA parameters (sensitivity 72.6%, specificity 64%) separated patients from controls. SCA is applicable for the analysis of de- and repolarization of cardiac mapping data.