Magnetocardiography in Early Detection of Electromagnetic Abnormality in Ischemic Heart Disease

Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the leading causes of death in the general population. Ischemia induces changes in the electrophysiologic properties of the myocardium that sometimes cannot be detected with rest ECG, which has a relatively low sensitivity. Magnetocardiography (MCG) which records the magnetic fields generated by the heart, is reported more sensitive for measuring myocardial electric activity. Many analyzing methods using MCG for the diagnosis of IHD are reported. Those methods can be summarized as follows: 1. magnetic measurement of ST and TQ segment shift, 2. spatial dispersion of the magnetocardiographically determined QT intervals (QT dispersion), 3. ST current angle rotation of magnetic field (isomagnetic map) at rest or in exercise magnetocardiography, 4. analyzing current arrow map during ventricular repolarization, and 5. analyzing the integral values of reporalization In this review we will given an overview of the current status of MCG methods for the diagnosis of IHD.