Determination of the Resultant Dipole of the Heart from Measurements on the Body Surface

Abstract

By means of the vector calculus, it is proved that the magnitude, orientation, and location of the resultant dipole of a system of sources and sinks inside a finite volume conductor is given by an integration over the bounding surface. The method is applied to finding the ``heart vector,'' or the resultant dipole moment of the human heart. The theory was checked in two- and three-dimensional electrolytic tank models of the human thorax.