Parallel matrix computations and their applications for biomagnetic fields

In this paper we present the results of a parallel implementation of a heart field simulation algorithm. The application of biomagnetic fields offers a wide range for using parallel algorithms. Pathological changes in the human body, especially in the heart muscle, can be diagnosed and localised by means of biomagnetic field parameters. The benefit of this diagnosis method is to fit an individual reference model of the heart field of a patient. Based on differences between the reference model and the real measured biomagnetic field parameters, the type and the position of defects in the heart can be located. The most time consuming components of the whole algorithm are the matrix computations, especially the matrix inversion. The matrix inversion can be implemented on a parallel distributed memory system. In this paper we discuss the routing, the parallel matrix inversion, and the speed up for different network topologies that depends on the number of processors and different problem sizes.