Lead system transformation for pooling of body surface maps: an evaluation

Multi-center research on Body Surface Maps (multi-lead ECGs) is often hampered by the fact that there are many different lead systems in use, varying in lead placement as well as in the number of leads. In this study, two different methods for converting multi-lead ECGs from one lead system format to another are evaluated. The first method is based on Laplacian interpolation and the second method is based on the correlation between lead signals. It was found that the Laplacian transformation method works well for lead systems having more than 60 leads. For some smaller lead systems, the correlation method is to be preferred.