Electromechanical simulator for cardiac catheter positioning: testing device for the intraventricular impedance imaging system

An electromechanical simulator for cardiac catheter positioning testing has been developed to experimentally evaluate the Intraventricular Impedance Imaging (III) system performance. Such an approach eliminates numerous problems associated with in vivo testing. This paper presents the results of such a modeling technique. The intraventricular probe positioning was realized as 3-D probe movement (static) or/and cardiac volume variation (dynamic), using hardware and/or software control modes. A ventricle imaging model was built using a 3-compartment simulator representing the blood, myocardium and lungs. Experimental results show that the model provides a static positioning resolution of 0.01-0.15 mm, dynamic volumetric resolution of 0.08 ml, and phantom resistivity contrast for blood:myocardium:lungs of 1:3.4:7.3.