Atrial fibrillation classification and association between the natural frequency and the autonomic nervous system

BACKGROUND: The feasibility study of the natural frequency (ω) obtained from a second-order dynamic system applied to an ECG signal was discovered recently. The heart rate for different ECG signals generates different ω values. The heart rate variability (HRV) and autonomic nervous system (ANS) have an association to represent cardiovascular variations for each individual. This study further analyzed the ω for different ECG signals with HRV for atrial fibrillation classification.

METHODS: This study used the MIT-BIH Normal Sinus Rhythm (nsrdb) and MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation (afdb) databases for healthy human (NSR) and atrial fibrillation patient (N and AF) ECG signals, respectively. The extraction of features was based on the dynamic system concept to determine the ω of the ECG signals. There were 35,031 samples used for classification.

RESULTS: There were significant differences between the N & NSR, N & AF, and NSR & AF groups as determined by the statistical t-test (p<0.0001). There was a linear separation at 0.4s(-1) for ω of both databases upon using the thresholding method. The feature ω for afdb and nsrdb falls within the high frequency (HF) and above the HF band, respectively. The feature classification between the nsrdb and afdb ECG signals was 96.53% accurate.

CONCLUSIONS: This study found that features of the ω of atrial fibrillation patients and healthy humans were associated with the frequency analysis of the ANS during parasympathetic activity. The feature ω is significant for different databases, and the classification between afdb and nsrdb was determined.