Human & swine studies of concurrent 12-lead ECG & MRI

Background 12-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a clinical standard for patient physiological monitoring. An MRI-conditional 12-lead ECG should permit detection of acute myocardial ischemia during MR imaging or MRI-guided therapy, which may improve the handling of patients with ischemic histories. MRI visualization of ischemic episodes can also enhance the understanding of ischemic progression. Previously an MR-conditional 12-lead ECG system was presented. The system was equipped with GradientRamp&RF (GR&RF) noise removal hardware & Magnetohydrodynamic (VMHD) voltage-removal software that improved ST segment visualization [1]. The study objectives were to (1) validate simultaneous 12-lead ECG monitoring & cardiac MR imaging in human subjects; (2) detect S-wave to T-wave (ST) ECG elevation & perform MR imaging of a Left Anterior Descending (LAD) balloon occlusion from the onset of ischemia to death in a swine model.