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Heart Rhythm Qualitative Analysis Using Low-Cost and Open Source Electrocardiography: A Study Based on Atrial Fibrillation Detection

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Physiological Computing Systems (PhyCS 2016, PhyCS 2017, PhyCS 2018)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 10057))

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Abstract

In the current digital era, cardiovascular activity analysis is becoming ubiquitous with the increasing availability of embedded systems, and, in some cases, these systems are even endowed with the capabilities of detecting health risk factors identified through electrocardiographic (ECG) markers. Aligned with this trend, and inspired by the results from our pilot study, we focus this research on exploring the potential of a low-cost and open source device for heart rhythm analysis, with emphasis on Atrial Fibrillation (AF). AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia, defined as a complex cardiac disease which is highly correlated to stroke and heart failure, and its prevalence is especially high in elderly population. Given the importance and impact of such cardiovascular disease, we performed ECG acquisitions in a hospital setting to evaluate the potential of this device to identify heart rhythms. These ECG acquisitions were performed in 10 patients, accomplished simultaneously with the low-cost device and the gold standard devices used in the clinical routine of the hospital. The data collected from the low-cost device was analysed by the cardiologist specialized in rhythmology, along with the conventional ECG exam analysis, whom suggested 100% accuracy of the low-cost device in differentiating a sinus rhythm from AF. The results also present great accuracy in the detection of atypical cardiac events through ECG analysis, as well as a good agreement for the corroboration of the numerical data from the devices used for this study, as the RR intervals and QTc intervals values suggest.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    http://bitalino.com/en/.

  2. 2.

    http://www.cambridgeheartwear.com.

  3. 3.

    https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds).

  4. 4.

    https://www.welchallyn.com/content/dam/welchallyn/documents/sap-documents/MRC/80022/80022538MRCPDF.pdf.

  5. 5.

    http://bitalino.com/datasheets/REVOLUTION_ECG_Sensor_Datasheet.pdf.

  6. 6.

    http://biosppy.readthedocs.io/en/stable/.

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Acknowledgements

Our team would like to thank to all the anonymous volunteers that agreed to collaborate with this study and also to Hospital da Senhora da Oliveira Guimarães, namely, the Cardiology Department that supported with the data acquisition process.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ace Centre, Oxford, OX14 1RG, UK

    Hélio B. M. Lourenço

  2. University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados, 5000-801, Vila Real, Portugal

    Manuel J. C. S. Reis & Francisco Barros

  3. Laboratório de Arritmologia, Pacing e Electrofisiologia, Hospital de Guimarães, Serviço de Cardiologia, Guimarães, Portugal

    Víctor Sanfins & Fernando Torgal

  4. Departamento de Ciências Sociais e Gerontologia, Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, Bragança, Portugal

    Sílvia Ala

  5. Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Galicia Sur—Grupo de Investigación en Neurociencia y Enfermedades Psiquiátricas, Vigo, Spain

    Sílvia Ala & Francisco Barros

  6. Neurosciences and Clinical Psychology, University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    Sílvia Ala

  7. IT—Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisbon, Portugal

    Hugo P. Silva

  8. Escola Superior de Tecnologia do Instituto Politécnico de Setúbal, Setúbal, Portugal

    Hugo P. Silva

  9. Department of Engineering, IEETA—The Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal

    Manuel J. C. S. Reis

Authors
  1. Hélio B. M. Lourenço
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  2. Víctor Sanfins
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  3. Fernando Torgal
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  4. Sílvia Ala
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  5. Manuel J. C. S. Reis
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  6. Hugo P. Silva
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  7. Francisco Barros
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hélio B. M. Lourenço .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Andreas Holzinger

  2. NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA

    Alan Pope

  3. IT - Instituto de Telecomunicações, Lisbon, Portugal

    Hugo Plácido da Silva

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Lourenço, H.B.M. et al. (2019). Heart Rhythm Qualitative Analysis Using Low-Cost and Open Source Electrocardiography: A Study Based on Atrial Fibrillation Detection. In: Holzinger, A., Pope, A., Plácido da Silva, H. (eds) Physiological Computing Systems. PhyCS PhyCS PhyCS 2016 2017 2018. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 10057. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27950-9_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27950-9_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-27949-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-27950-9

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