Methods of cardiac mapping and directional guidance

1. A cardiac mapping method comprising:

recording premature ventricular contraction (PVC) electrocardiogram (ECG) data during PVC of a heart;

generating a PVC activation map of the heart, based on the PVC ECG data and a three-dimensional (3D) heart model generated based on two-dimensional (2D) images of the heart, the PVC activation map including an area of earliest activation;

generating a reference image by modifying on one of the 2D images to identify the area of earliest activation;

displaying both the PVC activation map and the reference image;

pacing the heart at a first pacing location disposed in the area of earliest activation;

determining whether the first pacing location is an ablation location that may be ablated to prevent the PVC by comparing ECG data recorded during the pacing of the first pacing location to the PVC ECG data;

adding guidance information related to a second pacing location to the reference image in response to determining that the first pacing location is not an ablation location;

moving the pacing electrode to the second pacing location based on the guidance information; and

pacing the heart at the second pacing location.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying a real-time image of the heart,

wherein the generating a reference image comprises selecting one of the 2D heart images that most closely matches the real-time image.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating a reference image comprises adding a suggested pacing location to the reference image.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the suggested pacing location is a suggested ablation location.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the 2D images comprise magnetic resonance (MRI) images or computed tomography (CT) images of the heart.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the reference image comprises identifying a location of a pacing catheter on the reference image.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the area of earliest activation comprises an onset location of the PVC.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the guidance information comprises a vector image pointing from the first pacing location toward the second pacing location.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the guidance information comprises:

a first point representing the first pacing location; and

a vector image pointing from the first point toward the second pacing location.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the guidance information comprises:

a first point representing the first pacing location; and

a second point representing the second pacing location.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining whether the second pacing location is an ablation location based on a comparison of second pacing ECG data recorded during the pacing of the second pacing location and the PVC ECG data.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising ablating the heart at the second pacing location if the second pacing location is determined to be a suitable ablation location.

13. A cardiac mapping method comprising:

recording premature ventricular contraction (PVC) electrocardiogram (ECG) data during PVC of a heart;

generating a PVC activation map of the heart, based on the PVC ECG data and a three-dimensional (3D) heart model generated based on two-dimensional (2D) images of the heart, the PVC activation map including an area of earliest activation;

generating a reference image modifying on one of the 2D images to identify the area of earliest activation;

displaying both the PVC activation map and the reference image;

pacing the heart at a first pacing location disposed in the area of earliest activation; and

determining whether the first pacing location is an ablation location that may be ablated to prevent the PVC by determining whether the ECG data recorded during the pacing of the first pacing location replicates the PVC ECG data.