Characteristics of wavefront propagation in circuits causing human ventricular tachycardia

The conduction characteristics of human ventricular tachycardias (VT) have not been fully defined. The authors used a non-contact system to map 11 reentrant VT in 8 patients. Propagation velocities and 3-dimensional angles of turn were calculated from Cartesian co-ordinates. The complete diastolic pathway (DP) was mapped in 7 VT patients. DP wavefront velocity was 0.82/spl plusmn/0.49 m/s. Significant changes (>5 degrees/mm) in trajectory of propagation (TOP) occurred within 8 DP segments, in which propagation slowed to 0.41/spl plusmn/0.11 m/s compared with 0.91/spl plusmn/0.16 m/s preceding (p