title: Ventricular cycle length characteristics estimative of prolonged RR interval during atrial fibrillation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  When atrial fibrillation (AF) is incessant, imaging during a prolonged ventricular RR interval may improve image quality. It was hypothesized that long RR intervals could be predicted from preceding RR values.
  
  
  METHODS
  From the PhysioNet database, electrocardiogram RR intervals were obtained from 74 persistent AF patients. An RR interval lengthened by at least 250 ms beyond the immediately preceding RR interval (termed T0 and T1, respectively) was considered prolonged. A two-parameter scatterplot was used to predict the occurrence of a prolonged interval T0. The scatterplot parameters were: (1) RR variability (RRv) estimated as the average second derivative from 10 previous pairs of RR differences, T13-T2, and (2) Tm-T1, the difference between Tm, the mean from T13 to T2, and T1. For each patient, scatterplots were constructed using preliminary data from the first hour. The ranges of parameters 1 and 2 were adjusted to maximize the proportion of prolonged RR intervals within range. These constraints were used for prediction of prolonged RR in test data collected during the second hour.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean prolonged event was 1.0 seconds in duration. Actual prolonged events were identified with a mean positive predictive value (PPV) of 80% in the test set. PPV was >80% in 36 of 74 patients. An average of 10.8 prolonged RR intervals per 60 minutes was correctly identified.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A method was developed to predict prolonged RR intervals using two parameters and prior statistical sampling for each patient. This or similar methodology may help improve cardiac imaging in many longstanding persistent AF patients.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York.
authors.forename: Edward J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Ciaccio
authors.forename: Angelo B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Biviano
authors.forename: Alok
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gambhir
authors.forename: Andrew J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Einstein
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Garan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003936:Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: PhysioNet; RR interval; atrial fibrillation; cycle length; imaging