System and method for displaying electrophysiological signals from multi-dimensional catheters

1. A method of displaying a virtual electrogram for a selected virtual bipole, the method comprising:

receiving, at an electroanatomical mapping system, a plurality of electrophysiological signals from a respective plurality of electrodes carried by a multi-dimensional catheter;

using the plurality of received electrophysiological signals, computing, via the electroanatomical mapping system, a plurality of virtual electrograms associated with a respective plurality of virtual bipoles, wherein each virtual bipole of the plurality of virtual bipoles has a corresponding virtual bipole orientation;

selecting a virtual bipole orientation via the electroanatomical mapping system; and

displaying the virtual electrogram associated with the virtual bipole having the selected virtual bipole orientation via the electroanatomical mapping system.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein selecting a virtual bipole orientation comprises the electroanatomical mapping system generating a graphical user interface and receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises an orientation selection dial.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises an orientation selection slider.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises a geometric model of a patient's anatomy, and wherein receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface comprises receiving a user's definition of the virtual bipole orientation on the geometric model of the patient's anatomy.

6. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises a graphical representation of the multi-dimensional catheter, and wherein receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface comprises receiving a user's definition of the virtual bipole orientation on the graphical representation of the multi-dimensional catheter.

7. The method according to claim 2 , wherein selecting a virtual bipole orientation comprises the electroanatomical mapping system identifying a virtual bipole associated with a maximum amplitude virtual electrogram.

8. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising adding the virtual electrogram associated with the virtual bipole having the selected virtual bipole orientation to an electrophysiology map.

9. The method according to claim 8 , further comprising outputting a graphical representation of the electrophysiology map on a three-dimensional geometric model.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising outputting a graphical representation of the selected virtual bipole orientation.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein outputting a graphical representation of the selected virtual bipole orientation comprises outputting the graphical representation of the selected virtual bipole orientation on a graphical representation of the multi-dimensional catheter.

12. A method of displaying a virtual electrogram for a selected virtual bipole, the method comprising:

defining, via an electroanatomical mapping system, a clique of three or more electrodes carried by a multi-dimensional catheter;

using a plurality of electrophysiological signals received from the clique of three or more electrodes carried by the multi-dimensional catheter, computing, via the electroanatomical mapping system, a plurality of virtual electrograms, wherein each virtual electrogram of the plurality of virtual electrograms is associated with a respective virtual bipole having a bipole orientation relative to the multi-dimensional catheter;

selecting a virtual bipole orientation via the electroanatomical mapping system; and

displaying, via the electroanatomical mapping system, the virtual electrogram associated with the virtual bipole having the selected virtual bipole orientation as its bipole orientation relative to the multi-dimensional catheter.

13. The method according to claim 12 , wherein selecting a virtual bipole orientation comprises the electroanatomical mapping system generating a graphical user interface and receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises an orientation selection dial.

15. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises an orientation selection slider.

16. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises a geometric model of a patient's anatomy, and wherein receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface comprises receiving a user's definition of the virtual bipole orientation on the geometric model of the patient's anatomy.

17. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the graphical user interface comprises a graphical representation of the multi-dimensional catheter, and wherein receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface comprises receiving a user's definition of the virtual bipole orientation on the graphical representation of the multi-dimensional catheter.

18. The method according to claim 12 , wherein selecting a virtual bipole orientation comprises the electroanatomical mapping system identifying a virtual bipole associated with a maximum amplitude virtual electrogram.

19. The method according to claim 12 , further comprising adding the virtual electrogram associated with the virtual bipole having the selected virtual bipole orientation as its bipole orientation relative to the multi-dimensional catheter to an electrophysiology map, wherein a location of the virtual electrogram within the electrophysiology map is determined by a position of the clique of three or more electrodes.

20. The method according to claim 19 , wherein the location of the virtual electrogram within the electrophysiology map is determined by a centroid of the clique of three or more electrodes.

21. The method according to claim 12 , wherein the clique of three or more electrodes comprises all electrodes carried by the multi-dimensional catheter.

22. A system for displaying a plurality of virtual electrograms for a respective plurality of virtual bipoles, the system comprising:

an electroanatomical mapping system configured to receive a plurality of electrophysiological signals from a respective plurality of electrodes carried by a multi-dimensional catheter, wherein the electroanatomical mapping system further comprises a visualization module configured to:

compute a plurality of virtual electrograms associated with a respective plurality of virtual bipoles using the plurality of received electrophysiological signals, wherein each virtual bipole of the plurality of virtual bipoles has a corresponding virtual bipole orientation;

select a virtual bipole orientation; and

display the virtual electrogram associated with the virtual bipole having the selected virtual bipole orientation.

23. The system according to claim 22 , wherein the visualization module is configured to select the virtual bipole orientation by:

generating a graphical user interface for selection of the virtual bipole orientation; and

receiving a user selection of the virtual bipole orientation through the graphical user interface.

24. The system according to claim 22 , wherein the visualization module is configured to select the virtual bipole orientation by identifying a virtual bipole associated with a maximum amplitude virtual electrogram.