Cardiac biopotential analysis system and method

Abstract

Disclosed is a cardiac biopotential analysis system and method for detecting and quantifying in a noninvasive manner nonlinear dynamic patterns of depolarization and repolarization on a beat to beat basis in real time using bispectral analysis. A suitable body surface electrode acquires the signal from a region of interest. The signal is then amplified, digitized, and transmitted to a host microcomputer where an arrhythmia-free QRST complex is chosen interactively. Using standard cross-correlation methods a suitable number of complexes are extracted from the record. The extracted complexes are used to compute bispectral parameters using a frequency domain or a parametric based approach. A reference clinical database is used to identify frequency pairs most sensitive to particular interventions or diagnostic states of interest. The values at these frequency pairs are then extracted from the patient's bispectral arrays. The ensemble of values for the particular diagnostic determination under consideration is used to compute a single value index which serves as the diagnostic criterion by which the patient's state is judged. In this way the quantification of nonlinear dynamic properties of the frequency structure of the QRST yields information about the presence and extent of coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial ischemia, cardiac electrical stability, risk of malignant ventricular arrhydthmia, site(s) of origin of malignant arrhythmias, extent of malignancy of arrhythmias, degree of antiarrhythmic drug efficacy, neural and humoral inputs to the heart, pump function/ejection fraction, and ongoing organ rejection in cardiac transplant patients.

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