title: Implementation and verification of an enhanced algorithm for the automatic computation of RR-interval series derived from 24 h 12-lead ECGs.
abstract: An important tool in early diagnosis of cardiac dysfunctions is the analysis of electrocardiograms (ECGs) obtained from ambulatory long-term recordings. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis became a significant tool for assessing the cardiac health. The usefulness of HRV assessment for the prediction of cardiovascular events in end-stage renal disease patients was previously reported. The aim of this work is to verify an enhanced algorithm to obtain an RR-interval time series in a fully automated manner. The multi-lead corrected R-peaks of each ECG lead are used for RR-series computation and the algorithm is verified by a comparison with manually reviewed reference RR-time series. Twenty-four hour 12-lead ECG recordings of 339 end-stage renal disease patients from the ISAR (rISk strAtification in end-stage Renal disease) study were used. Seven universal indicators were calculated to allow for a generalization of the comparison results. The median score of the indicator of synchronization, i.e. intraclass correlation coefficient, was 96.4% and the median of the root mean square error of the difference time series was 7.5 ms. The negligible error and high synchronization rate indicate high similarity and verified the agreement between the fully automated RR-interval series calculated with the AIT Multi-Lead ECGsolver and the reference time series. As a future perspective, HRV parameters calculated on this RR-time series can be evaluated in longitudinal studies to ensure clinical benefit.
authors.affiliation: Health & Environment Department, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hagmair
authors.forename: Matthias C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Braunisch
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bachler
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schmaderer
authors.forename: Anna-Lena
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hasenau
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.forename: Kostantinos D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Rizas
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wassertheurer
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Mayer
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001331:Automation; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013997:Time Factors