Detection of rotational activity in cardiac electrophysiology

A device for detecting points and/or regions of rotational electrophysiological activity in or on a heart, said device comprising:

• an input for receiving spatiotemporal electrophysiological data corresponding to a plurality of spatial locations in or on the heart;
• a time feature extractor for providing, based on said received spatiotemporal electrophysiological data, for each of said plurality of spatial locations, a plurality of time values indicative of a time of occurrence of a predetermined feature of a plurality of electric potential waveforms at said spatial location;
• a mapping unit for providing pairs of adjacent spatial locations of said plurality of spatial locations;
• a directed graph generator for generating a directed graph comprising directed edges, each directed edge connecting a pair of said pairs of adjacent spatial locations in a sense of direction that is representative of a direction of propagation in time of at least one electric potential waveform of the plurality of electric potential waveforms between said pair of spatial locations, and wherein a distance associated with each pair of said pairs of adjacent spatial locations and at least one time value of said plurality of time values for each spatial location of said pair are taken into account to generate said directed graph;
• a topological feature analyzer for determining cycles in said directed graph;
• and
• an output for outputting detected points and/or detected regions in or on said heart as representative of said cycles detected by said topological feature analyzer.

A computer-implemented method for detecting points and/or regions of rotational electrophysiological activity in or on a heart, said method comprising:

• receiving spatiotemporal electrophysiological data corresponding to a plurality of spatial locations in or on the heart;
• providing, based on said electrophysiological data, for each of said plurality of spatial locations, a plurality of time values indicative of a time of occurrence of a predetermined feature of a plurality of electric potential waveforms at said spatial location;
• providing pairs of adjacent spatial locations of said plurality of spatial locations;
• generating a directed graph comprising directed edges, each directed edge connecting a pair of said pairs of adjacent spatial locations in a sense of direction that is representative of a direction of propagation in time of at least one electric potential waveform of the plurality of electric potential waveforms between said pair of spatial locations, and
• wherein a distance associated with each pair of said pairs of adjacent spatial locations and at least one time value of said plurality of time values for each spatial location of said pair are taken into account to generate said directed graph;
• determining cycles in said directed graph;
• and
• outputting detected points and/or detected regions of interest in or on said heart as representative of said cycles.