Characteristics of multichannel ECG recordings during human ventricular tachyarrhythmias

Ventricular tachyarrhythmias are a leading cause of mortality. Although ventricular tachycardia (VT) is well understood, ventricular fibrillation (VF) remains an important clinical problem because fundamental information about the mechanisms of this arrhythmia in human hearts is still in short supply. While a number of therapeutic options are available for terminating or treating VT, the best hope for a patient experiencing VF is prompt defibrillation. This article examines approaches to analyzing multichannel data recorded during routine electrophysiology studies for the purpose of obtaining quantitative information about human tachyarrhythmias.