Comparative Dipolar
Electrocardiotopographic Study of Ventricular Activation in Macaca mulatta
Monkeys and Man
I. RUTTKAY-NEDECKÝ
Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Slovak Academy of
Sciences, Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Received February 13, 2003
Accepted May 5, 2003
Summary
Electrocardiographic correlates of ventricular activation sequence were
studied in 22 Macaca mulatta monkeys, aged
1-18 years, and 145 human subjects, aged 11-72 years, using the corrected
orthogonal lead system of McFee-Parungao and the dipolar
electrocardiotopographic (DECARTO) data presentation, where the time
series of instantaneous spatial vectors are converted into time series of
areas of activation on a spherical image surface enveloping the heart.
Macaques had shorter ventricular activation time (6111 vs. 9711 ms) that
could not be explained exclusively by their higher heart rate. Their
DECARTO image of the resultant activation front occurred 10 ms after QRS
onset (septal activation) identically with humans, but it attained a more
anteriorly oriented maximum earlier than in humans (20 vs. 40 ms). The
time course of the extent of the resultant activation front in old
macaques (15-18 years) resembled to that observed in humans. On the
average, female macaques had smaller DECARTO images of activation fronts
throughout the QRS complex than males. This finding is in agreement with
the known smaller QRS amplitudes in women than in men.
Key words
Electrocardiography • Ventricular activation • Macaques
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