Origin of electrical activation within the right atrial and left ventricular walls: differentiation by electrogram characteristics using the noncontact mapping system

Clinical data using the noncontact mapping system (Ensite 3000) suggest that characteristics of the reconstructed unipolar electrograms may predict the origin of electrical activation within the atrial and ventricular walls (endocardial vs myocardial vs epicardial origin). Experimental data are lacking. In ten open-chest pigs (mean body weight 62 kg) cardiac pacing was performed at a cycle length of 600 ms with a pulse width of 2 ms and twice diastolic threshold from the endo-, the myo-, and the epicardium, respectively. Pacing was undertaken at three right atrial and three left ventricular sites, and cardiac activation was recorded with the Ensite system. Reconstructed unipolar electrograms at the location of earliest endocardial activation assessed by color coded isopotential maps were analyzed systematically for differences in morphology. The positive predictive value of atrial electrograms exhibiting an initial R wave during pacing for a subendocardial origin (i.e., myocardial or epicardial) was 0.96. The negative predictive value was 0.48. Electrograms generated during myocardial pacing exhibited increased maximal negative voltage and maximal dV/dt (-3 +/- 1.8 mV, -798 +/- 860 mV/ms, respectively) than the electrograms obtained during endocardial (-2 +/- 1 mV, -377 +/- 251 mV/ms, respectively) and epicardial pacing (-2.1 +/- 0.7 mV, -440 +/- 401 mV/ms, respectively, P