Characterization of ventricular tachycardias based on time and frequency domain analyses of cycle length variability in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

OBJECTIVE: To discriminate between monomorphic (MVT) and polymorphic (PVT) ventricular tachycardias in humans using cycle length variability (CLV), and to characterize the onset of MVT and PVT using power spectral analysis of the CLV during sinus rhythm and the number of ventricular extrasystoles before onset of arrhythmia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Medtronic, Inc's Spontaneous Ventricular Tachy- arrhythmia Database was analyzed. This data base contains sets of 1000 RR intervals (n=135) that preceded spontaneous onset of ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation and sets of controls (n=135) without spontaneous ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation from 78 patients with the Medtronic Model 7218 implantable cardioverter defibrillator. CLV was measured as the standard deviation of RR intervals normalized by the mean RR value. Power spectral analysis based on the fast Fourier transform analysis was performed on 128 RR samples, and the normalized power spectrum of the low frequency band (0.04 to 0.15 Hz) and of the high (NHF) frequency band (0.15 to 0.4 Hz) were estimated. RESULTS: During PVT the CLV was much greater (0. 133+/-0.095) than during MVT (0.04+/-0.035) (P<0.0001). Also, 64% of patients who developed PVT had more than 27 extrasystoles compared with 40% of patients during control conditions (P=0.03). This parameter was not significantly different in patients with MVT. Due to the high incidence of extrasystoles in this population, only 36% of PVT and 43% of MVT recordings could be analyzed for CLV during sinus rhythm. NHF characterizing parasympathetic activity decreased from 50.6% (PVT control) to 34.4% (PVT onset) (P=0.06) and from 47. 4% (MVT control) to 43.7% (MVT onset) (P=0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Discrimination between MVT and PVT episodes was possible based on CLV analysis. The onset of PVT was characterized by a greater number of preceding extrasystoles compared with the control. During sinus rhythm, the NHF spectral power activity decreased at the onset of both types of arrhythmic episodes compared with control, although statistical significance was marginal.

Spectral analysis of electrograms during ventricular tachycardia in a canine model: relation with epicardial isochronal maps.

The purpose of this study was to assess the capability of magnitude-squared coherence and bicoherence to differentiate monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (MVT) and polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (PVT) in a canine model and to relate these results to the epicardial isochronal maps on a beat-to-beat basis. Unipolar electrograms were simultaneously recorded from the surface of both ventricles with a 127-lead sock electrode array in 12 open-chest anesthetized dogs. The sampling frequency was 500 Hz. Atrioventricular block was induced by formaldehyde injection into the atrioventricular node. The left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded for 60 minutes under ventricular pacing (140 beats/min). During reperfusion, 12 MVT episodes lasting more than 42 seconds were recorded. Left stellate ganglion stimulation induced five PVT episodes lasting more than 42 seconds. Each of these recordings was divided into seven segments of 3,072 points (6.144 seconds). After visual selection, 104 segments were extracted and classified as 73 MVT and 31 PVT segments. Magnitude-squared coherence was estimated as the cross-spectrum from two epicardial signals (on the right and left ventricles, respectively), normalized with the respective autopower spectrum. Bicoherence was estimated as the bispectrum normalized with the autopower spectrum. Magnitude-squared coherence correctly identified 96% of MVT and 81% of PVT segments for a total accuracy of 91%. Bicoherence estimated with the left ventricular lead correctly identified 100% of MVT and 77% of PVT segments with an accuracy of 93%. Beat-to-beat epicardial maps of MVT displayed a cluster of sites of origin close to the reperfusion area, while the sites of origin from beats during PVT were much more dispersed over both ventricles. A strong and significant correlation was found between the number of electrodes with the earliest epicardial activation and coherence (r = .76, P < .0001) and bicoherence (r = .68, P < .0001), respectively. A high and significant correlation was also found between both spectral estimators (r = .74, P < .0001). Coherence and bicoherence discriminated accurately between MVT and PVT. Coherence achieved better results compared with bicoherence. Coherence and bicoherence measurements showed a quantitative relation with the spatial dispersion of the sites of origin. Both spectral techniques seemed powerful enough to be used in the development of implantable devices.