Toward a novel semi-invasive activation mapping tool for the diagnosis of supraventricular arrhythmias from the esophagus.

AIMS: Supraventricular arrhythmia diagnosis using the surface electrocardiogram (sECG) is often cumbersome due to limited atrial signal quality. In some instances, use of esophageal electrocardiography (eECG) may facilitate the diagnosis. Here, we present a novel approach to reconstruct cardiac activation maps from eECG recordings. METHODS: eECGs and sECGs were recorded from 19 individuals using standard acquisition tools. From the recordings, algorithms were developed to estimate the esophageal ECG catheter's position and to reconstruct high-resolution mappings of the cardiac electric activity projected in the esophagus over time. RESULTS: Esophageal two-dimensional activation maps were created for five healthy individuals and 14 patients suffering from different arrhythmias. The maps are displayed as time-dependent contour plots, which not only show voltage over time as conventional ECGs, but also the location, direction, and projected propagation speed of the cardiac depolarization wavefront in the esophagus. Representative examples of sinus rhythm, atrial flutter, and ventricular pre-excitation are shown. CONCLUSION: The methodology presented in this report provides a high-resolution view of the cardiac electric field in the esophagus. It is the first step toward a three-dimensional mapping system, which shall be able to reconstruct a three-dimensional view of the cardiac activation from recordings within the esophagus.

Estimation of Arterial Pulse Wave Velocity from Doppler Radar Measurements: a Feasibility Study.

Pulse wave velocity has emerged as important diagnostic parameter due to its association with various cardiovascular disorders, such as hypertension, vascular aging, and atherosclerosis. Long-term monitoring of pulse wave velocity can be beneficial in carrying out accurate diagnosis of the underlying conditions or even for an early prediction of cardiovascular diseases. Doppler radar has emerged as a promising technology for contact-less monitoring and assessment of physiological parameters. In this study, we aimed at: i) as a first step, assessing the feasibility of measuring arterial pulse waves at the femoral region using the Doppler radar technology, and consequently, ii) estimating the pulse transit time between the heart-femoral regions as well as between the carotid-femoral regions using simultaneous Doppler radar measurements. The results of our feasibility study demonstrate that the arterial pulse waves in the femoral region, arising due to cardiac activity, can be estimated using the Doppler radar technology in a contact-less fashion. Furthermore, simultaneous pulse wave measurements at distinct surface locations using this technique can enable contact-less estimation of the pulse transit time and consequently pulse wave velocity.

Efficient Thermobonding Process Forming a Polyurethane Based Diagnostic Catheter with Liquid Crystal Polymer.

Diagnostic and therapeutic catheters play an inevitable role in minimal invasive medical procedures. Unfortunately, standard catheters show a limited transducer density and high production efforts. We propose a novel catheter design and manufacturing method using a liquid crystal polymer (LCP)-based flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) and a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer tube. Both components are bond together with a low cost, additive free lamination process at a re-flow temperature of 250° C. The lamination process is improved with a laser welding seam and LCP-integrated microholes preventing delamination. Standardized Mechanical tests were conducted to characterize the bonding. A Peel strength of up to 8.5 N in the radial direction and a non plastic elongation in the axial direction of 10% provide evidence that the thermobonding process is suitable for the production of flexible and mechanically durable medical catheters featuring high electrode densities.

Estimation of the Cardiac Field in the Esophagus Using a Multipolar Esophageal Catheter.

The rapid progress of invasive therapeutic options for cardiac arrhythmias increases the need for accurate diagnostics. The surface electrocardiogram (ECG) is still the standard of noninvasive diagnostics but lacks atrial signal resolution. By contrast, esophageal electrocardiography (EECG) yields atrial signals of high amplitude and with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Esophageal electrocardiography has become fast and safe, but the mechanical constraints of esophageal measuring catheters and the "random" motion of the catheter inside the subject's esophagus limit the spatial resolution of EECG signals. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate the electrical field projected onto the esophagus with an increased spatial resolution, using commonly available esophageal catheters. In a first step, we estimate the time-varying catheter position, and in a second step, we estimate the projected electrical field with enhanced spatial resolution. The proposed algorithm comprises several consecutive optimization steps, where each intermediate step produces not just a single point estimate, but a cost function over multiple solutions, which reduces the information loss at each processing step. We conclude with examples from a clinical trial, where the fields of cardiac arrhythmias are presented as two-dimensional contour plots.

K-band Doppler radar for contact-less overnight sleep marker assessment: a pilot validation study.

An estimated 45 million persons in Europe are annually subjected to sleep-wake disorders. State-of-the-art polysomnography provides sophisticated insights into sleep (patho)physiology. A drawback of the method, however, is the obtrusive setting dependent on a clinical-based sleep laboratory with high operational costs. A contact-less prototype was developed to monitor limb movements and vital signs during sleep. A dual channel K-band Doppler radar transceiver captured limb movements and periodic chest wall motion due to respiration and heart activity. A wavelet transform based multi-resolution analysis (MRA) approach isolated limb movements, respiration, and heart rate from the demodulated signal. A test bench setup characterized the prototype simulating near physiological chest wall motions caused by periodic respiration and heartbeats in humans. Single- and multi-tone test bench simulations showed extremely low relative percentage errors of the prototype for respiratory and heart rate within -2 and 1%. The performance of the prototype was validated in overnight comparative studies, involving two healthy volunteers, with polysomnography as the reference. The prototype has successfully classified limb movements, with a sensitivity and specificity of 88.9 and 76.8% respectively, and has achieved accurate respiratory and heart rate measurement performance with overall absolute errors of 1 breath per minute for respiration and 3 beats per minute for heart rate. This pilot study shows that K-band Doppler radar and wavelet transform MRA seem to be valid for overnight sleep marker assessment. The contact-less approach might offer a promising solution for home-based sleep monitoring and assessment.

Markers for silent atrial fibrillation in esophageal long-term electrocardiography.

PURPOSE: Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) often remains undiagnosed. Long-term surface ECG is used for screening, but has limitations. Esophageal ECG (eECG) allows recording high quality atrial signals, which were used to identify markers for PAF. METHODS: In 50 patients (25 patients with PAF; 25 controls) an eECG and surface ECG was recorded simultaneously. Partially A-V blocked atrial runs (PBARs) were quantified, atrial signal duration in eECG was measured. RESULTS: eECG revealed 1.8‰ of atrial premature beats in patients with known PAF to be PBARs with a median duration of 853ms (interquartile range (IQR) 813-1836ms) and a median atrial cycle length of 366ms (IQR 282-432ms). Even during a short recording duration of 2.1h (IQR 1.2-17.2h), PBARs occurred in 20% of PAF patients but not in controls (p=0.05). Left atrial signal duration was predictive for PAF (72% sensitivity, 80% specificity). CONCLUSIONS: eECG reveals partially blocked atrial runs and prolonged left atrial signal duration - two novel surrogate markers for PAF.

A Baseline Wander Tracking System for Artifact Rejection in Long-Term Electrocardiography.

Long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) signals might suffer from relevant baseline disturbances during physical activity. Motion artifacts in particular are more pronounced with dry surface or esophageal electrodes which are dedicated to prolonged ECG recording. In this paper we present a method called baseline wander tracking (BWT) that tracks and rejects strong baseline disturbances and avoids concurrent saturation of the analog front-end. The proposed algorithm shifts the baseline level of the ECG signal to the middle of the dynamic input range. Due to the fast offset shifts, that produce much steeper signal portions than the normal ECG waves, the true ECG signal can be reconstructed offline and filtered using computationally intensive algorithms. Based on Monte Carlo simulations we observed reconstruction errors mainly caused by the non-linearity inaccuracies of the DAC. However, the signal to error ratio of the BWT is higher compared to an analog front-end featuring a dynamic input ranges above 15 mV if a synthetic ECG signal was used. The BWT is additionally able to suppress (electrode) offset potentials without introducing long transients. Due to its structural simplicity, memory efficiency and the DC coupling capability, the BWT is dedicated to high integration required in long-term and low-power ECG recording systems.

Graphics-processor-unit-based parallelization of optimized baseline wander filtering algorithms for long-term electrocardiography.

Long-term electrocardiogram (ECG) often suffers from relevant noise. Baseline wander in particular is pronounced in ECG recordings using dry or esophageal electrodes, which are dedicated for prolonged registration. While analog high-pass filters introduce phase distortions, reliable offline filtering of the baseline wander implies a computational burden that has to be put in relation to the increase in signal-to-baseline ratio (SBR). Here, we present a graphics processor unit (GPU)-based parallelization method to speed up offline baseline wander filter algorithms, namely the wavelet, finite, and infinite impulse response, moving mean, and moving median filter. Individual filter parameters were optimized with respect to the SBR increase based on ECGs from the Physionet database superimposed to autoregressive modeled, real baseline wander. A Monte-Carlo simulation showed that for low input SBR the moving median filter outperforms any other method but negatively affects ECG wave detection. In contrast, the infinite impulse response filter is preferred in case of high input SBR. However, the parallelized wavelet filter is processed 500 and four times faster than these two algorithms on the GPU, respectively, and offers superior baseline wander suppression in low SBR situations. Using a signal segment of 64 mega samples that is filtered as entire unit, wavelet filtering of a seven-day high-resolution ECG is computed within less than 3 s. Taking the high filtering speed into account, the GPU wavelet filter is the most efficient method to remove baseline wander present in long-term ECGs, with which computational burden can be strongly reduced.

Electrocardiographic ST-segment monitoring during controlled occlusion of coronary arteries.

BACKGROUND: Ischemia monitoring cannot always be performed by 12-lead ECG. Hence, the individual performance of the ECG leads is crucial. No experimental data on the ECG's specificity for transient ischemia exist. METHODS: In 45 patients a 19-lead ECG was registered during a 1-minute balloon occlusion of a coronary artery (left anterior descending artery [LAD], right coronary artery [RCA] or left circumflex artery [LCX]). ST-segment shifts and sensitivity/specificity of the leads were measured. RESULTS: During LAD occlusion, V3 showed maximal ST-segment elevation (0.26mV [IQR 0.16-0.33mV], p=0.001) and sensitivity/specificity (88% and 80%). During RCA occlusion, III showed maximal ST-elevation (0.2mV [IQR 0.09-0.26mV], p=0.004), aVF had the best sensitivity/specificity (85% and 68%). During LCX occlusion, V6 showed maximal ST-segment elevation (0.04mV [IQR 0.02-0.14mV], p=0.005), and sensitivity/specificity was (31%/92%) but could be improved (63%/72%) using an optimized cut-off for ischemia. CONCLUSION: V3, aVF and V6 show the best performance to detect transient ischemia.

Electrodes for long-term esophageal electrocardiography.

The emerging application of long-term and high-quality ECG recording requires alternative electrodes to improve the signal quality and recording capability of surface skin electrodes. The esophageal ECG has the potential to overcome these limitations but necessitates novel recorder and lead designs. The electrode material is of particular interest, since the material has to ensure conflicting requirements like excellent biopotential recording properties and inertness. To this end, novel electrode materials like PEDOT and silver-PDMS as well as established electrode materials such as stainless steel, platinum, gold, iridium oxide, titanium nitride, and glassy carbon were investigated by long-term electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and model-based signal analysis using the derived in vitro interfacial properties in conjunction with a dedicated ECG amplifier. The results of this novel approach show that titanium nitride and iridium oxide featuring microstructured surfaces did not degrade when exposed to artificial acidic saliva. These materials provide low electrode potential drifts and insignificant signal distortion superior to surface skin electrodes making them compatible with accepted standards for ambulatory ECG. They are superior to the noble and polarizable metals such as platinum, silver, and gold that induced more signal distortions and are superior to esophageal stainless steel electrodes that corrode in artificial saliva. The study provides rigorous criteria for the selection of electrode materials for prolonged ECG recording by combining long-term in vitro electrode material properties with ECG signal quality assessment.