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Contactless Magnetocardiography and Related Novel Methods for Non-Invasive Experimental and Clinical Functional Imaging of Normal and Abnormal Cardiac Electrophysiology

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A Special Issue of Journal of Clinical Medicine (ISSN 2077-0383) belonging to the section "Cardiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2027 | Viewed by 460

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Editors

Dr. Riccardo Fenici

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Guest Editor

1. Biomagnetism and Clinical Physiology International Center, 00144 Rome, Italy
2. School of Medicine and Surgery, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 00168 Rome, Italy
Interests: magnetocardiography; electrocardiography; invasive electrophysiology; non-invasive functional imaging of cardiac electrophysiology; arrhythmogenic mechanisms; arrhythmogenic substrate localization; atrial fibrillation; heart rate variability; autonomic nervous system and dysautonomia; cardiomyopathies; operational stress evaluation in military and police personnel

Dr. Donatella Brisinda

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Guest Editor

1. Department of Ageing, Orthopaedic and Rheumatologic Sciences, General Medicine and Ageing Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A. Gemelli, Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS), 00168 Rome, Italy
2. School of Medicine and Surgery, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 00168 Rome, Italy
3. Biomagnetism and Clinical Physiology International Center, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: magnetocardiography; electrocardiography; non-invasive functional imaging of cardiac electrophysiology; arrhythmo-genic mechanisms; arrhythmogenic substrate localization; atrial fibrillation; heart rate variability; cardiomyopathies; autonomic nervous system and dysautonomia; heart failure; immunology; operational stress evaluation in military and police personnel

Dr. Peter Fenici

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Guest Editor

1. School of Medicine and Surgery, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, 00168 Rome, Italy
2. Biomagnetism and Clinical Physiology International Center, 00144 Rome, Italy
Interests: magnetocardiography; preventive medicine, critical care medicine and resuscitation; integrated interdisciplinary care; cardiology; heart failure; chronic kidney disease; metabolism and nutrition; diabetes; healthcare innovation; digital health, artificial intelligence; point-of-care diagnostics; real-world evidence; pharmaceutical industry; entrepreneurship

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cardiac arrhythmias are a major burden on global health and patient quality of life. Despite advances in the areas of ablation and pharmacological therapies, both these approaches remain limited, emphasizing the need for accurate, personalized assessment of arrhythmogenic mechanisms to enhance efficacy, minimize risk, and prevent proarrhythmic drug effects. This need is particularly pressing for prevalent sustained arrhythmia such as atrial fibrillation, an issue which affects millions worldwide and remains only partially treatable by interventional means.

To minimize unnecessary procedural risks and enable timely reevaluations for reproducibility, non-invasive techniques, such as multimodal integration of electrocardiography (ECG) and magnetocardiography (MCG), with anatomical and functional imaging provided by echocardiography, cardiac CT or MRI, should ideally be used to assess human cardiac electrophysiology. In particular, magnetocardiography (MCG) offers a promising, contactless approach for clinical electrophysiological studies. Based on well-established physical principles, MCG records biomagnetic fields that provide information complementary to that of electrocardiography (ECG). The direct relationship between cardiac magnetic fields and intracellular currents, the minimal distortion caused by the conductivity of surrounding tissues, and the capability to reconstruct action potential waveforms all support its additional diagnostic potential.

Furthermore, MCG enables a simpler and more accurate inverse solution for three-dimensional localization of arrhythmogenic substrates compared to ECG mapping, validated over two decades of research. Ongoing advances in development are making MCG more reliable in paving the way for standardized, widely accessible clinical applications.

The aim of the Special Issue “Contactless Magnetocardiography and Related Novel Methods for Non-Invasive Experimental and Clinical Functional Imaging of Normal and Abnormal Cardiac Electrophysiology” is to encourage colleagues involved in clinical research to submit original manuscripts.

Sub-themes for this research topic include, but are not limited to the following:

Three-dimensional MCG imaging for diagnostic purposes (cardiomyopathies, arrhythmias, etc.).
Magnetoionography to quantify the effect of antiarrhythmic drugs.
Standardization of MCG procedures for clinical applications and integration within hospital or ambulatory services.
Other related novel methods for non-invasive experimental and clinical functional imaging of normal and abnormal cardiac electrophysiology.

Dr. Riccardo Fenici
Dr. Donatella Brisinda
Dr. Peter Fenici
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

magnetocardiography
non-invasive functional imaging of cardiac electrophysiology
arrhythmogenic mechanisms
atrial fibrillation
magnetoionography
antiarrhythmic drugs
artificial intelligence

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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15 pages, 1127 KB

Open AccessArticle

Magnetocardiographic Rotation Score and Arrhythmic Endpoints in Primary-Prevention ICD Recipients: An Exploratory Substudy of the Magneto-SCD Trial

by Thomas Lachlan, Hejie He, Adam Miller, Nakul Chandan, Taesoon Hwang, Shoaib Siddiqui, Roger Beadle, David Wilson, Sanjiv Petkar, Ven Gee Lim, Peter K. Kimani and Faizel Osman

J. Clin. Med. 2026, 15(18), 6985; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm15186985 - 9 Sep 2026

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Abstract

Background/Objectives: Primary-prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) selection remains dominated by left ventricular ejection fraction and clinical heart failure markers, which incompletely distinguish between patients who will experience ventricular arrhythmia and those whose prognosis is limited by competing non-arrhythmic mortality. The Magneto-SCD trial recently reported novel rotation-based magnetocardiography (MCG) indices associated with future appropriate ICD therapies. This substudy explores whether MCG Rotation Score provides incremental information in primary-prevention ICD recipients, particularly beyond NYHA status and MADIT-arrhythmic and non-arrhythmic risk scores. Methods: We included all Magneto-SCD trial participants with a primary-prevention indication with non-missing follow-up/MCG Rotation Score data. The full primary-prevention cohort comprised 54 participants; the post-MI subgroup comprised 28. The primary endpoint was time to first appropriate ICD therapy. Death without prior therapy was used as a pragmatic competing endpoint and not assumed to represent adjudicated non-arrhythmic death. Appropriate shock was a secondary endpoint. Two-year cumulative incidence functions were estimated using Aalen–Johansen methods. Cause-specific Cox models assessed Rotation Score alone and after addition to MADIT-derived scores; nested likelihood-ratio tests evaluated model fit. Results: Of 104 participants, 90 had analysable MCG data and 65 had a primary-prevention ICD indication; after exclusions for missing patients, 54 patients remained (mean age 63.8 ± 13.2 yrs, 45(83.3%) male). Appropriate ICD therapies occurred in 10 (18.5%), including appropriate ICD shock in eight (14.8%); 10 patients (18.5%) died without prior therapy. The median follow-up was 1211.5 days (IQR 793.5–1396.0). Each SD increase in Rotation Score was associated with appropriate ICD therapy with HR 1.64 (95% CI 0.93–2.87; p = 0.086), appropriate ICD shock with HR 2.07 (95% CI 1.15–3.72; p = 0.015), death without prior therapy with HR 1.08 (95% CI 0.54–2.17; p = 0.824), and death without prior ICD shock with HR 0.95 (95% CI 0.48–1.90; p = 0.890). Adding Rotation Score did not significantly improve the primary therapy model beyond MADIT components (LRT p = 0.065) or MADIT benefit score (LRT p = 0.109). Model fit improved for the secondary appropriate ICD shock endpoint when Rotation Score was added to MADIT components (LRT p = 0.016), based on eight shock events. Conclusions: Rotation Score showed an association pattern more closely aligned with arrhythmic endpoints, particularly appropriate ICD shock, than with death without prior therapy. Incremental prognostic value for the primary endpoint was not established. These findings are hypothesis-generating and require confirmation in adequately powered, prospectively designed and externally validated cohorts before any role in clinical risk stratification or ICD decision-making can be determined. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contactless Magnetocardiography and Related Novel Methods for Non-Invasive Experimental and Clinical Functional Imaging of Normal and Abnormal Cardiac Electrophysiology)

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