Time-frequency characterization of simultaneous intra-atrial and electrocardiographic recordings during atrial fibrillation

• A new method for characterization of simultaneous intra-atrial and ECG recordings during atrial fibrillation (AF) is presented. With different preprocessing, both types of signals are characterized using a logarithmic time-frequency distribution from which trends of frequency, regularity, morphology (only ECG) and signal quality are extracted. The objective of the study is to relate ECG measures of rate and morphology to measures of intra-atrial organisation. The algorithm has been tested on a database with simultaneous ECG and right atrial recordings from 34 patients with drug-refractory AF. The average frequency in lead V1 was 5.91 Hz (std=0.94) and the average exponential decay of harmonic magnitudes (reflecting the morphology) in V1 was 1.31 (std=0.38); their correlation coefficient was 0.53 (p<0.001). The correlation coefficient between spatial frequency dispersion in the right atrium and harmonic decay was 0.53 (p<0.005). More organized AF, observed in patients treated with amiodarone, was reflected by a lower frequency, smaller right atrial frequency dispersion and lower exponential decay

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

harmonic decay

right atrium

electrocardiography

intra-atrial recordings

atrial fibrillation

ECG

spatial frequency dispersion

logarithmic time-frequency distribution

correlation coefficient

drug-refractory AF

Publication and Content Type

kon (subject category)

ref (subject category)