Geometrical aspects of the inter-individual variability of multilead ECG recordings

The ECG as measured from healthy subjects shows considerable inter-individual variability. This variability is caused by geometrical, as well as by physiological factors. A correction method for the variability due to the geometrical causes is proposed. In this method, the electrical heart activity is computed from the ECG in a realistic geometrical model. Subsequently, the electrical heart activity is transferred to a standard geometry and the resulting ECG is computed. In an evaluation study using simulated ECG data the inter-individual relative variability (RV) of the multilead ECG data was reduced from 0.40 to 0.06. Applied to measured ECG data so far no reduction could be obtained.