Characteristics of a charged-coupled-device-based optical mapping system for the study of cardiac arrhythmias.

We develop an optical fluorescent mapping system that is able to record the action potential wavefront propagation within cardiac tissue samples with high spatial and temporal resolutions. The system's main component, the fluorescence acquisition device (customized CCD camera), offers a high spatial resolution of 128 x 128 pixels, with 12-bit digitization and a frame rate of 490 frames/s. The system is designed and implemented to image an area of approximately 20 x 20 mm at its minimum object distance of 140 mm, corresponding to a spatial resolution of approximately 3 line pairs/mm. Experiments using this system with di-4-ANEPPS-stained canine cardiac tissues with stimulated action potentials through external electrodes result in successful mappings of the distribution and propagation of the action potential wavefronts, showing the system's sensitivity to the change in fluorescence intensity in regions of action potentials. These data demonstrate this optical mapping system as a powerful device in the study of cardiac arrhythmia mechanisms.