Discrimination between atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation by computing a flutter index

Abstract

We currently present the advanced development of our 12-lead ECG analyzing program HES. Recently our algorithm did not differentiate between atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. Therefore, we now present a refined method for discrimination between atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. The new approach contains two steps. In step one an algorithm has been developed that detects 'sawtooth'-like atrial flutter waves within a one second ECG data interval. This algorithm uses frequency domain measures after preprocessing the recorded data. The second step summarizes the results of step one applied to all 1s data segments by computing an atrial flutter index. The combination of step one and step two raises the total accuracy of the classification from 79.7% to 84.5%. The new algorithm was validated in 187 12 lead 10s resting ECGs, which were classified by an experienced cardiologist