Differences in areas of human frontal medial wall activated by left and right motor execution: dipole-tracing analysis of grand-averaged potentials incorporated with MNI three-layer head model.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a non-invasive technique for monitoring electrical activity and has good time resolution. Combining these advantages of EEG with dipole-tracing analysis incorporating a realistic three-layer head model (scalp-skull-brain head model; SSB/DT) allows for the detection of dipoles in the millisecond range and investigation of the processing of cognitive function and movement execution. In this study, we constructed a scalp-skull-brain head model from Montreal Neurological Institute standard brain images and detected dipole localizations in the millisecond range from grand-averaged negative slope (NS) to motor potentials during a simple pinching movement. The left movement activated the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA), rostral cingulate cortex and rostral premotor area, which are associated with cognitive functions and self-initiated decisions. These areas were associated with the early NS potential during left pinching movement preparation. The right movement activated the caudal cingulate cortex, pre-SMA and caudal premotor area, and these areas were activated just before the execution of movement.

Computational method for estimating boundary of abdominal subcutaneous fat for absolute electrical impedance tomography.

Abdominal fat accumulation is considered an essential indicator of human health. Electrical impedance tomography has considerable potential for abdominal fat imaging because of the low specific conductivity of human body fat. In this paper, we propose a robust reconstruction method for high-fidelity conductivity imaging by abstraction of the abdominal cross section using a relatively small number of parameters. Toward this end, we assume homogeneous conductivity in the abdominal subcutaneous fat area and characterize its geometrical shape by parameters defined as the ratio of the distance from the center to boundary of subcutaneous fat to the distance from the center to outer boundary in 64 equiangular directions. To estimate the shape parameters, the sensitivity of the noninvasively measured voltages with respect to the shape parameters is formulated for numerical optimization. Numerical simulations are conducted to demonstrate the validity of the proposed method. A 3-dimensional finite element method is used to construct a computer model of the human abdomen. The inverse problems of shape parameters and conductivities are solved concurrently by iterative forward and inverse calculations. As a result, conductivity images are reconstructed with a small systemic error of less than 1% for the estimation of the subcutaneous fat area. A novel method is devised for estimating the boundary of the abdominal subcutaneous fat. The fidelity of the overall reconstructed image to the reference image is significantly improved. The results demonstrate the possibility of realization of an abdominal fat scanner as a low-cost, radiation-free medical device.

Time-frequency analysis of QRS complex with wavelet transform in patients with triple-vessel disease.

OBJECTIVE: Significant Q-wave is sometimes invisible in the patients with triple vessel disease (TVD) even though TVD is a serious coronary heart disease. We offer the preliminary method to analyze the time-frequency profile of QRS in TVD patients. METHODS: Electrocardiograms (ECG) band-pass filtered through 50 to 300Hz were recorded from the persons without heart diseases (Normal group; n=24), the patients with single vessel disease (SVD group; n=12) and TVD (TVD group; n=12) and saved into PC. For each subject, the time-frequency powers of ECG (lead II) were calculated by the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) with 40 frequency bands. They were integrated during QRS to get the integrated time-frequency powers (ITFP) for all the frequency bands. RESULTS: The ITFP at lower frequency range (90 Hz or less) were smaller in SVD and TVD groups, compared with normal group. The ITFP at higher frequency range (120 to 350 Hz) were larger in patients with recurrent heart failure due to TVD. The increase in ITFP at wider frequency bands was seen with and without significant Q waves. CONCLUSION: The present results that the increase in higher frequency power in TVD with recurrent heart failure may indicate the severity of myocardial damage, regardless of significant Q-wave.

High-frequency power within the QRS complex in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients with ventricular arrhythmias: Insights from a clinical study and computer simulation of cardiac fibrous tissue.

BACKGROUND: The distribution of frequency power (DFP) within the QRS complex (QRS) is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the DFP within the QRS in ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM) with lethal ventricular arrhythmias (L-VA). A computer simulation was performed to explore the mechanism of abnormal frequency power. METHODS: The study included 31 ICM patients with and without L-VA (n = 10 and 21, respectively). We applied the continuous wavelet transform to measure the time-frequency power within the QRS. Integrated time-frequency power (ITFP) was measured within the frequency range of 5-300 Hz. The simulation model consisted of two-dimensional myocardial tissues intermingled with fibroblasts. We examined the relation between frequency power calculated from the simulated QRS and the fibroblast-to-myocyte ratio (r) of the model. RESULTS: The frequency powers significantly increased from 180 to 300 Hz and from 5 to 15 Hz, and also decreased from 45 to 80 Hz in patients with ICM and L-VA compared with the normal individuals. They increased from 110 Hz to 250 Hz in ICM alone. In the simulation, the high-frequency power increased when the ratio (r) were 2.0-2.5. Functional reentry was initiated if the ratio (r) increased to 2.0. CONCLUSIONS: Abnormal higher-frequency power (180-300 Hz) may provide arrhythmogenic signals in ICM with L-VA that may be associated with the fibrous tissue proliferation.

Use of the ventricular propagated excitation model in the magnetocardiographic inverse problem for reconstruction of electrophysiological properties.

A novel magnetocardiographic inverse method for reconstructing the action potential amplitude (APA) and the activation time (AT) on the ventricular myocardium is proposed. This method is based on the propagated excitation model, in which the excitation is propagated through the ventricle with nonuniform height of action potential. Assumption of stepwise waveform on the transmembrane potential was introduced in the model. Spatial gradient of transmembrane potential, which is defined by APA and AT distributed in the ventricular wall, is used for the computation of a current source distribution. Based on this source model, the distributions of APA and AT are inversely reconstructed from the QRS interval of magnetocardiogram (MCG) utilizing a maximum a posteriori approach. The proposed reconstruction method was tested through computer simulations. Stability of the methods with respect to measurement noise was demonstrated. When reference APA was provided as a uniform distribution, root-mean-square errors of estimated APA were below 10 mV for MCG signal-to-noise ratios greater than, or equal to, 20 dB. Low-amplitude regions located at several sites in reference APA distributions were correctly reproduced in reconstructed APA distributions. The goal of our study is to develop a method for detecting myocardial ischemia through the depression of reconstructed APA distributions.

EEG markers for characterizing anomalous activities of cerebral neurons in NAT (neuronal activity topography) method.

A pair of markers, sNAT and vNAT, is derived from the electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectra (PS) recorded for 5 min with 21 electrodes (4-20 Hz) arranged according to the 10-20 standard. These markers form a new diagnosis tool "NAT" aiming at characterizing various brain disorders. Each signal sequence is divided into segments of 0.64 s and its discrete PS consists of eleven frequency components from 4.68 (3 × 1.56) Hz through 20.34 (13 × 1.56) Hz. PS is normalized to its mean and the bias of PS components on each frequency component across the 21 signal channels is reset to zero. The marker sNAT consists of ten frequency components on 21 channels, characterizing neuronal hyperactivity or hypoactivity as compared with NLc (normal controls). The marker vNAT consists of ten ratios between adjacent PS components denoting the over- or undersynchrony of collective neuronal activities as compared with NLc. The likelihood of a test subject to a specified brain disease is defined in terms of the normalized distance to the template NAT state of the disease in the NAT space. Separation of MCI-AD patients (developing AD in 12-18 months) from NLc is made with a false alarm rate of 15%. Locations with neuronal hypoactivity and undersynchrony of AD patients agree with locations of rCBF reduction measured by SPECT. The 2-D diagram composed of the binary likelihoods between ADc and NLc in the two representations of sNAT and vNAT enables tracing the NAT state of a test subject approaching the AD area, and the follow-up of the treatment effects.

Time frequency power profile of QRS complex obtained with wavelet transform in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

We evaluated whether frequency analysis could detect the development of interstitial fibrosis in rats. SHR/Izm and age-matched WKY/Izm were used. Limb lead II electrocardiograms were recorded. Continuous wavelet transform (CWT) was applied for the time-frequency analysis. The integrated time-frequency power (ITFP) between QRS complexes was measured and compared between groups. The ITFP at low-frequency bands (≤125Hz) was significantly higher in SHR/Izm. The percent change of ITFP showed the different patterns between groups. Prominent interstitial fibrosis with an increase in TIMP-1 mRNA expression was also observed in SHR/Izm. These results were partly reproduced in a computer simulation.

The genesis of injury potentials: the role of recording electrodes at different locations.

The objective of the present study was to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the so-called injury potentials, including the origin of monophasic action potentials and the role of recording electrodes. Two-dimensional computer simulation was performed for cardiac tissue containing an inactivated region due to high extracellular K concentration. Myocardial activation was reproduced using a membrane model. The bidomain model was utilized for the calculation of intra-and extracellular potentials. A bipolar lead from electrodes at injured and intact regions showed a monophasic curve corresponding to the transmembrane potential of the fiber under the electrode of the intact region. Unipolar leads from injured and intact regions showed monophasic and biphasic curves, respectively. Lowering the extracellular conductivity was associated with an increase in the wave amplitude. The injured region of myocardium was associated with monophasic potential variations. A bipolar lead with electrodes at injured and intact regions reflected the activity of the intact region.