Sources of variability in normal body surface potential maps

Within-group variability of body surface potential maps was assessed on data from 685 carefully validated normal subjects (348 men and 337 women). Sources of within-group variability were evaluated by subgrouping maps by patient sex, age, height, and weight. Contribution of reproducibility error to total variance was assessed in a separate group of 52 normal subjects in whom multiple maps were recorded. Total variance was significantly lower in women than in men. Total variance tended to decrease with age, and the greatest decrease occurred in men during the 3rd decade. The ratio of total variance to mean signal energy showed a slow decrease with age for each group. Results suggest that the dominant source of within-group variability arises from variability of cardiac electric sources while the influence of volume conductor variability is significantly less. Variability due to measurement reproducibility was approximately half of the total variance.