Search

Short QT syndrome (SQTS) is an inherited cardiac ion-channel disease related to an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young and otherwise healthy individuals. SCD is often the first clinical presentation in patients with SQTS. However, arrhythmia risk stratification is presently unsatisfactory in asymptomatic patients. In this context, artificial intelligence-based electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis has never been applied to refine risk stratification in patients with SQTS. The purpose of this study was to analyze ECGs from SQTS patients with the aid of different AI algorithms to evaluate their ability to discriminate between subjects with and without documented life-threatening arrhythmic events. The study group included 104 SQTS patients, 37 of whom had a documented major arrhythmic event at presentation and/or during follow-up. Thirteen ECG features were measured independently by three expert cardiologists; then, the dataset was randomly divided into three subsets (training, validation, and testing). Five shallow neural networks were trained, validated, and tested to predict subject-specific class (non-event/event) using different subsets of ECG features. Additionally, several deep learning and machine learning algorithms, such as Vision Transformer, Swin Transformer, MobileNetV3, EfficientNetV2, ConvNextTiny, Capsule Networks, and logistic regression were trained, validated, and tested directly on the scanned ECG images, without any manual feature extraction. Furthermore, a shallow neural network, a 1-D transformer classifier, and a 1-D CNN were trained, validated, and tested on ECG signals extracted from the aforementioned scanned images. Classification metrics were evaluated by means of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, accuracy, and area under the curve. Results prove that artificial intelligence can help clinicians in better stratifying risk of arrhythmia in patients with SQTS. In particular, shallow neural networks' processing features showed the best performance in identifying patients that will not suffer from a potentially lethal event. This could pave the way for refined ECG-based risk stratification in this group of patients, potentially helping in saving the lives of young and otherwise healthy individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signal describes the heart's electrical activity, allowing it to detect several health conditions, including cardiac system abnormalities and dysfunctions. Nowadays, most patient medical records are still paper-based, especially those made in past decades. The importance of collecting digitized ECGs is twofold: firstly, all medical applications can be easily implemented with an engineering approach if the ECGs are treated as signals; secondly, paper ECGs can deteriorate over time, therefore a correct evaluation of the patient's clinical evolution is not always guaranteed. The goal of this paper is the realization of an automatic conversion algorithm from paper-based ECGs (images) to digital ECG signals. The algorithm involves a digitization process tested on an image set of 16 subjects, also with pathologies. The quantitative analysis of the digitization method is carried out by evaluating the repeatability and reproducibility of the algorithm. The digitization accuracy is evaluated both on the entire signal and on six ECG time parameters (R-R peak distance, QRS complex duration, QT interval, PQ interval, P-wave duration, and heart rate). Results demonstrate the algorithm efficiency has an average Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.94 and measurement errors of the ECG time parameters are always less than 1 mm. Due to the promising experimental results, the algorithm could be embedded into a graphical interface, becoming a measurement and collection tool for cardiologists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year cardiovascular diseases kill the highest number of people worldwide. Among these, pathologies characterized by sporadic symptoms, such as atrial fibrillation, are difficult to be detected as state-of-the-art solutions, e.g., 12-leads electrocardiogram (ECG) or Holter devices, often fail to tackle these kinds of pathologies. Many portable devices have already been proposed, both in literature and in the market. Unfortunately, they all miss relevant features: they are either not wearable or wireless and their usage over a long-term period is often unsuitable. In addition, the quality of recordings is another key factor to perform reliable diagnosis. The ECG WATCH is a device designed for targeting all these issues. It is inexpensive, wearable (size of a watch), and can be used without the need for any medical expertise about positioning or usage. It is non-invasive, it records single-lead ECG in just 10 s, anytime, anywhere, without the need to physically travel to hospitals or cardiologists. It can acquire any of the three peripheral leads; results can be shared with physicians by simply tapping a smartphone app. The ECG WATCH quality has been tested on 30 people and has successfully compared with an electrocardiograph and an ECG simulator, both certified. The app embeds an algorithm for automatically detecting atrial fibrillation, which has been successfully tested with an official ECG simulator on different severity of atrial fibrillation. In this sense, the ECG WATCH is a promising device for anytime cardiac health monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]