Admittance measurement for assessment of cardiac hemodynamics in clinical and research applications

The admittance method is an important tool for the indirect determination of cardiac hemodynamics in animal research and has clinical potential as a hemodynamic monitor for implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs). Animal studies use a conductance catheter to determine left-ventricular (LV) volume, but ICDs must make use of existing pacing leads to perform an admittance measurement. This work aims to further the use of the admittance method by extending its use to multi-segment conductance catheters, determining parasitic circuit element's effects on electric property measurements, using biventricular pacing leads to determine cardiac hemodynamics, and analysis of spatial sensitivity using finite element models in various configurations. Experimental results show the admittance method can be used to determine LV stroke volume with biventricular pacing leads. Modeling results show removal of the muscle component focuses the measurement's spatial sensitivity towards the left-ventricular blood pool.