Study of ventricular repolarization in patients with myocardial ischemia, using unshielded multichannel magnetocardiography

Previous work, carried out in magnetically shielded rooms, has demonstrated that multichannel magnetocardiog-raphy (MMCG) is useful to detect ventricular repolarization abnormalities in patients (pts) with exercise induced myocardial ischemia. This study was aimed to evaluate the reliability of MMCG for the study of ventricular re-polarization abnormalities due to myocardial ischemia, in an unshielded hospital environment, fully equipped for intensive care, as the first step for future investigation of critical pts with acute ischemia or infarction. Quantitative analysis of rest MCG ripolarization parameters was performed according to Hänninen et al. At rest magnetic field orientation of the integral of the second quarter from the J- point (ST angle α) was abnormal in 70% of the investigated patients. With present technology, MMCG can be performed also in an unshielded hospital room for intensive care, with quality good enough for non-contact monitoring and imaging of time evolution of acute myocardial ischemia.