An artificial intelligence-enabled ECG algorithm for identifying ventricular premature contraction during sinus rhythm

Abstract Background Ventricular premature complex (VPC) is a common arrhythmia in clinical practice. VPC could trigger ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation or VPC-induced cardiomyopathy in susceptible patients. Existing screening methods require prolonged monitoring and are limited by cost and low y...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sheng-Nan Chang, Yu-Heng Tseng, Jien-Jiun Chen, Fu-Chun Chiu, Chin-Feng Tsai, Juey-Jen Hwang, Yi-Chih Wang, Chia-Ti Tsai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2022-12-01
Series:European Journal of Medical Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40001-022-00929-z
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Summary:Abstract Background Ventricular premature complex (VPC) is a common arrhythmia in clinical practice. VPC could trigger ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation or VPC-induced cardiomyopathy in susceptible patients. Existing screening methods require prolonged monitoring and are limited by cost and low yield when the frequency of VPC is low. Twelve-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is low cost and widely used. We aimed to identify patients with VPC during normal sinus rhythm (NSR) using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning-based ECG reading. Methods We developed AI-enabled ECG algorithm using a convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect the ECG signature of VPC presented during NSR using standard 12-lead ECGs. A total of 2515 ECG records from 398 patients with VPC were collected. Among them, only ECG records of NSR without VPC (1617 ECG records) were parsed. Results A total of 753 normal ECG records from 387 patients under NSR were used for comparison. Both image and time-series datasets were parsed for the training process by the CNN models. The computer architectures were optimized to select the best model for the training process. Both the single-input image model (InceptionV3, accuracy: 0.895, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.683–0.937) and multi-input time-series model (ResNet50V2, accuracy: 0.880, 95% CI 0.646–0.943) yielded satisfactory results for VPC prediction, both of which were better than the single-input time-series model (ResNet50V2, accuracy: 0.840, 95% CI 0.629–0.952). Conclusions AI-enabled ECG acquired during NSR permits rapid identification at point of care of individuals with VPC and has the potential to predict VPC episodes automatically rather than traditional long-time monitoring.
ISSN:2047-783X