AUGMENTED 2-CHANNEL ARRHYTHMIA DETECTION - AN EFFICIENT DIAGNOSTIC METHOD FOR IMPLANTABLE DEVICES

ICDs are highly effective in preventing sudden cardiac death. However, inappropriate device shocks caused by false-positive diagnoses are es timated to happen in 20% of all patients. The need for implantable ele ctrical devices to defect with precision arrhythmias requiring therapy has spawned a variety of proposals for better means of tachycardia id entification. To address this problem, the augmented two-channel arrhy thmia detection (A2CAD) algorithm, a real-time scheme utilizing timing and morphology from both the atrial and ventricular channels, is intr oduced The algorithm uses rate detection as a first stage and augments this with morphological signal analysis in rhythms that confound the rate only diagnoses. The software executes in real-time (online), and has been tested on 60 passages of two-channel intracardiac signals. Th e following arrhythmias constituted the test set: 10 AF and/or atrial flutter; 15 SVT; 16 VT; 10 ventricular flutter or VF; 5 sinus tachycar dia; and 4 cases of AF concurrent with VF. Results from 60 patient cas es indicate 57 (95%) of 60 success rate for A2CAD, validating its pote ntial for implementation in future implantable devices.