Cardiac Electrical Heterogeneity from Multi-Beat Signal Filtering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cardiac evaluation methods rely on single cardiac cycles or beats, which may be noisy or non-representative, leading to inaccurate calculations of electrical heterogeneity and dyssynchrony, and often require invasive implantable devices for signal monitoring.
Innovation Solution
A noninvasive system using external electrodes on the patient's torso to monitor electrical activity over multiple cardiac cycles, automating the selection and processing of high-quality beats to derive representative electrical heterogeneity information (EHI) through quality checks, phase-matched comparisons, and signal processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If a single cardiac cycle is used for calculating electrical heterogeneity, then the measurement process is simple and quick, but the accuracy and reliability of the measurement deteriorates due to noise and non-representative beats
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary quality assessment of cardiac cycles before using them for measurement. It identifies and eliminates noisy or non-representative beats in advance by checking signal quality metrics, ensuring only high-quality cycles are used for calculating electrical heterogeneity. This preliminary filtering action improves measurement accuracy without requiring complex real-time processing during the actual measurement.
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines multiple cardiac cycles that have passed quality checks to generate a representative measurement of electrical heterogeneity. By merging data from multiple high-quality beats and averaging or consolidating the results, the system achieves more reliable and accurate measurements that are representative of the patient's typical cardiac function, overcoming the limitations of single-cycle measurements.
2Reliability
If invasive implantable devices are used for signal monitoring, then the signal quality is high, but the invasiveness and patient risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses external electrodes to create a noninvasive copy or surrogate measurement of the cardiac electrical signals. Instead of directly implanting electrodes in the heart, it captures electrical activity through surface electrodes and processes these external signals to derive electrical heterogeneity information. This copying approach maintains measurement reliability while eliminating the harms associated with invasive procedures.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces the mechanical/invasive approach of implanting electrodes with a noninvasive electrical measurement approach using surface electrodes. By substituting the invasive mechanical implantation with external electrical sensing, the system achieves comparable signal quality for heterogeneity assessment without the physical intrusion, infection risk, or patient discomfort associated with implanted devices.
3Measurement precision
If multiple cardiac cycles are processed to generate representative EHI, then the measurement accuracy improves, but the processing time and computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary quality filtering and selection of cardiac cycles before the main processing stage. By pre-identifying and eliminating low-quality beats, it reduces the number of cycles that require intensive processing, thereby maintaining measurement robustness while reducing overall processing time. This preliminary sorting action prepares the data in advance for more efficient analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts and isolates only the high-quality cardiac cycles that meet predetermined criteria, separating them from noisy or non-representative beats. By extracting only the relevant, high-quality data portions for further processing, it reduces computational burden and processing time while maintaining the robustness of the final measurement based on multiple quality-assured cycles.
Data Source
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AI summary
Systems and methods are described herein for generating representative cardiac information. The representative cardiac information may be based on a plurality of electrode signals monitored, or measured, over a plurality of cardiac cycles or heart beats. The systems and methods may remove unqualified cardiac cycles, remove invalid electrode signals, remove inconsistent cardiac cycles, and removing uncorrelated cardiac cycles, and then generate representative cardiac information based on the remaining cardiac cycles and electrode signals.