Identification of the Ectopic Foci of Focal Atrial Tachycardia (FAT) by Using Electrocardiogram (ECG) Signal Analysis

Cardiac electrophysiology study (EPS) is the study of the electrical system of the heart. One of the most common methods of treating cardiac arrhythmias is ablation. The main problem with this method is determination of the position of the heart that must be be ablated. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is used as a non-invasive, safe and fast tool to understand the electrical activity of the heart. The aim of this study was to identify the focal atrial tachycardia ectopic foci based on ECG signal analysis using sparse decomposition algorithm.

12-lead ECG signals of 48 patients with focal atrial tachycardia were recorded and stored. After preprocessing the ECG signals, by using Pan-Tompkins algorithm, each pulse of each signal was separated. Sparse coefficients of test data were calculated based on the sparse decomposition algorithm and the test data were classified. 4 anatomical position in the right atrium, one in the septum and 4 anatomical position in the left atrium were considered as 9 classes and the position of the ectopic foci in each test data was determined.

At first, the location of the ectopic foci was identified in the right or left atrium, and then the exact anatomical position in each atrium was estimated. The average accuracy of identifying the position of ectopic foci in 5 runs of algorithm was 81.27±2.78. The mean accuracy of identification of ectopic foci was 61.73% in 4 anatomical position of right atrium, 64.05% in septum and 65.16% in 4 anatomical position of left atrium.

Based on the findings of the study, the location of the ectopic foci of focal atrial tachycardia can be identified with appropriate accuracy using ECG signal analysis before performing electrophysiological study.