Method and system for calculating conduction velocity of a cardiac activation wavefront

1. A method for calculating conduction velocity of a cardiac activation wavefront from electrophysiological (“EP”) data points generated by a mapping system during a mapping procedure for a heart, comprising:

selecting a set of surface electrodes, using the mapping system;

driving the set of surface electrodes with current pulses, using the mapping system;

sensing EP data as a function of the current pulses, using the set of surface electrodes;

generating the EP data in the form of a plurality of EP data points, using the mapping system;

wherein each EP data point of the plurality of EP data points comprising a local activation time, and position data defining a location within the heart corresponding to the local activation time:

for each of the EP data points:

defining a neighborhood of EP points comprising the EP data point and a selection of the EP data points;

representing the local activation time as a function f(x,y), where x and y are coordinates within a hyperplane defined to contain the neighborhood of EP data points as a function of the position data for each of the EP data points in the neighborhood; and

calculating the conduction velocity at the EP data point as a norm function of a gradient for the function f(x,y).

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising converting f(x,y) into a linear function prior to calculating the conduction velocity.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein f(x,y) is converted into a linear function using least squares minimization.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the selection of the neighborhood of EP data point is determined as a function of a distance of the neighboring EP data point to said EP data point.

5. A computing apparatus comprising:

a mapping system having a plurality of surface electrodes;

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, configure the apparatus to:

select a set of the surface electrodes, using the mapping system;

drive the set of surface electrodes with current pulses, using the mapping system;

sense EP data as a function of the current pulses, using the set of surface electrodes;

generate the EP data in the form of a plurality of EP data points, using the mapping system;

wherein each EP data point of the plurality of EP data points comprising a local activation time, and position data defining a location within a heart corresponding to the local activation time:

for each EP of the data points:

define a neighborhood of EP points comprising the EP data point and a selection of the EP data points;

represent local activation time as a function f(x,y), where x and y are coordinates within a hyperplane defined to contain the neighborhood of EP data points as a function of the position data for each of the EP data points in the neighborhood; and

calculate conduction velocity at the EP data point as a norm function of a gradient for the function f(x,y).

6. The computing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the instructions further configure the apparatus to convert f(x,y) into a linear function prior to calculating the conduction velocity.

7. The computing apparatus of claim 6 , wherein f(x,y) is converted into a linear function using least squares minimization.

8. The computing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the selection of the neighborhood of EP data point is determined as a function of a distance of the neighboring EP data point to said EP data point.