Electrocardiographic body surface maps (BSM) in patients with ischemic heart disease examined by coronary angiography.

ECG body surface maps (BSM) is one of the noninvasive methods for the detection of ischemic heart disease. In the present work we registered the BSM in 25 patients, 18 men, mean age 56.8 (31-83) years, 7 women, mean age 58.7 (43-72) years with coronary artery disease and in 23 healthy persons, 17 men, mean age 55 (46-60) years, 6 women, mean age 57 (42-70) years. Using diagnostic system Cardiag we measured 32 parameters of heart electric field (ECG, VCG, isopotential, isointegral, and isoarea maps). The results of BSM examination were compared with the results of coronary angiography (CAG) and other noninvasive methods. Twenty-four patients were BSM positive, 5 of them with negative CAG. In one case both BSM and CAG were negative. None of persons with positive CAG were BSM negative. The values of positive BSM in patients with negative CAG approached more to the values of positive CAG persons than to controls. Despite of small number of persons examined in our study one can conclude that the BSM method detects the damage of myocardium by another way than the CAG.