title: Evaluation of an automatic cardiac activation detector for bipolar electrograms.
abstract: The identification of local activation events in bipolar cardiac electrograms, the first step of isochronal map construction, is a time-consuming and difficult process. Owing to the variability among bipolar activation complexes and the lack of practical knowledge concerning the relationship of the bipolar waveform to action potential characteristics, a set of empirical rules to guide the assignment of local activation times have been adopted. A computer program, called AP, has been designed, which implements these rules in the form of a syntactic analyser. Canine epicardial recordings were used to evaluate AP by comparing local activation times, assigned by AP, with times assigned independently by three investigators. The Hermes-Cox model for detector evaluation and a bootstrap statistical method were used in conjunction with ROC analysis to evaluate the ability of AP to detect events. Analysis of discrepancies among investigator-assigned times showed that the reliabilities of AP event detection and AP-assigned times were comparable to those of the investigators. The methods used in system design and evaluation are applicable to a broad range of problems in the detection and localisation of waveform components.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710.
authors.forename: E V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Ideker
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cabo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yabe
authors.forename: X
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Melnick
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004285:Dogs; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012984:Software; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology