Risk evaluation of ventricular tachycardia using wavelet transform irregularity of the high-resolution electrocardiogram

A new method for analysis of high-resolution ECG signals using a wavelet tr ansform based on a modified Morlet function is presented. A polynomial filt er is used to reduce low-frequency, high-amplitude noise components in the analysed signals. The method is tested on test ECG signals with simulated l ate potentials and finally verified on two post-infarction patient (PP) gro ups: 62 PPs with ventricular tachycardia and 44 PPs without arrhythmia. A n ew quantitative parameter, the irregularity factor, is proposed for discrim ination between the study groups. The results show a significant difference in the parameter values for tachycardia patients compared with those for p atients without arrhythmia. The sensitivity of the proposed method is 85 %, and the specificity is 93 %.