In vivo potentiostatic studies at the electrode tissue interface: Filter properties of the monophasic action potential (Ag/AgCl) electrode in living rat heart

The monophasic action potential (Franz) catheter is regarded as the criterion standard for high fidelity recording of a class of physiological signals. However, its signal modulation characteristics have never been reported. Broadband impedance spectroscopy was performed in perfused living rat heart in a three-electrode potentiostatic configuration to determine the filtering characteristics of the MAP and model Ag/AgCl electrode-tissue interfaces. The filter transfer function H(F) (attenuation [dB] vs log(f) [log(Hz)]) was derived for the frequency range 10 Hz-10(6) Hz. As a filter, the MAP interface is characterized by two ranges of filtering behavior. At high frequency the MAP interface is a high-pass filter with passband frequency 54 kHz-549 kHz (median 321 kHz) and with -3 dB cutoff points ranging from 10 kHz to 302 kHz. In this high frequency range the transfer function is characterized by decreasing attenuation per decade. However, in the lower frequency range relevant to physiological signals (the monophasic action potential, 0.1-40 Hz), if is a severely attenuating nondiodic high-pass filter element with an average attenuation of 16.87 dB relative to passband. In this physiological range, rolloff is nonlinear with increasing attenuation per decade. While the MAP electrode and model Ag/AgCl electrodes are high-pass filters with robust transfer functions for high frequency signals in the living heart, the attenuation of signals in a frequency range relevant to in vivo physiological recording imparts extreme attenuation that may distort physiological signals unpredictably. This disadvantage may be mitigated by amplitude scaling to a calibrated pure tone signal within the physiological frequency band to recover a reproducible signal.