The use of magnetocardiography and body surface potential mapping in the detection of coronary artery disease in chest pain patients with a normal electrocardiogram

In this study, we have tested both the 36-channel Magnetocardiogram (MCG) and the 40-lead Body Surface Potential Map (BSPM) in their performance of diagnosing significant coronary artery disease in 27 chest pain patients with a normal electrocardiogram (ECG) and 23 healhty controls. The analysis of the BSPMs and MCGs was focused on several aspects of the ST segment. Using discriminant analysis on parameters describing the morphology of the MCG and BSPM tracings, it was found that for classification in three groups, (healthy subjects, and chest pain patients with and without significant coronary artery disease (CAD)), at most a correct classification ratio of 74%, 74% and 76% can be obtained for respectively MCG, BSPM and MCG/BSPM combined. It was shown that with MCG and BSPM provide additional, noninvasive, regional information compared to 12-lead resting ECG, which could help in the discrimination of chest pain patients with and without significant CAD.