| Long term monitoring of the
electrocardiogram for prediction and assessment of heart disease |
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| Pisut Raphisak, Stephanie Schuckers, Amy de Jongh Curry, Robert
Malkin, Tieling Yan, Michael Schuckers |
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| Approximately 4.9 million Americans suffer from heart failure. Of
the 550,000 people who receive the diagnosis of heart failure annually,
one fifth dies within the first year. Most patients (80%) will not
survive longer than 8 to 12 years(1). The development of electrocardiogram
(ECG) data acquisition systems and large data storage space opens
the possibility that the ECG can be recorded continuously for long
periods, even weeks or months. In our laboratory, ECG collected from
animal models of chronic heart failure was studied. Heart failure
was progressively induced in laboratory animals and ECG was recorded
for the entire period of pre to post heart failure. (The generated
data is massive - approximately 20GB per animal.) The goal is to study
and understand heart failure development and, ultimately, to predict
the possibility of heart failure and arrhythmias in long term. This
study could potentially lead to better diagnosis and treatment if
the progression of heart failure could be followed. |
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| The above figure is a result from one of our experimental animals.
The graph displays changes of mean heart rate from normal condition
to heart failure. The animal was untreated in the first week of the
experiment and, after that, aldosterone was administered to induce
chronic heart failure. In the graph, each color pixel is a heart rate
value coded according to the bar besides the graph and white palettes
are missing values. Each row shows heart rates in 24-hour period –
from midnight to midnight the next day (left to right). The next day
continues in the next row. The top row is the first day of experiment
and so on. The number on the vertical axis indicates day of experiment
and hours during the day are displayed in the horizontal axis. As
displayed in the figure, heart rate and 24-hour heart rate variability
(circadian rhythm) show progressive changes as heart failure progresses.
Our current research are studying such patterns in heart rate variability
and ECG morphology to understand how these patterns reflects different
stages of heart failure and, ultimately, predict and determine the
risk of future heart failure. |
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| (1) American Health Assistance Foundation. (2003, May 1). About
Heart Disease and Stroke: Treatment, Risk Factors, Symptoms, News,
Research, Resources |
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| Published in Proceedings of IEEE Engineering Medicine Biology Society
Conference, 2003 |
