Atrial fibrosis identification with unipolar electrogram eigenvalue distribution analysis in multi-electrode arrays

Atrial fbrosis plays a key role in the initiation and progression of atrial fbrillation (AF). Atrial fbrosis is typically identifed by a peak-to-peak amplitude of bipolar electrograms (b-EGMs) lower than 0.5 mV, which may be considered as ablation targets. Nevertheless, this approach disregards signal spatiotemporal information and b-EGM sensitivity to catheter orientation. To overcome these limitations, we propose the dominant-to-remaining eigenvalue dominance ratio (EIGDR) of unipolar electrograms (u-EGMs) within neighbor electrode cliques as a waveform dispersion measure, hypothesizing that it is correlated with the presence of fbrosis. A simulated 2D tissue with a fbrosis patch was used for validation. We computed EIGDR maps from both original and time-aligned u-EGMs, denoted as R and RA, respectively, also mapping the gain in eigenvalue concentration obtained by the alignment, ΔRA. The performance of each map in detecting fbrosis was evaluated in scenarios including noise and variable electrode-tissue distance. Best results were achieved by RA, reaching 94% detection accuracy, versus the 86% of b-EGMs voltage maps. The proposed strategy was also tested in real u-EGMs from fbrotic and non-fbrotic areas over 3D electroanatomical maps, supporting the ability of the EIGDRs as fbrosis markers, encouraging further studies to confrm their translation to clinical settings

Machine learning approach and waves synchronization improvement for the localization of Atrial Flutter circuit based on the 12-leads ECG

International audienceThe localization of the Atrial flutter (AFL) is of great interest for ablation planification. Regardless the direction of rotation of the corresponding reentry loop, its left or right atrium origin needs to be known beforehand. This lo-calization is usually performed by using visual inspection of the 12-leads standard ECG that could be computerized. The aim of the study is to automatically classify the corresponding averaged F-waves by using one to five simple features. The averaged F-wave is computed by introducing a new multi-lead extension of a SVD based method for the wave resynchronization. A dataset of ECG recorded from 56 subjects and comprising 25 left AFL and 31 right AFL will train the clas-sifier. It is shown that the single lead SVD based wave synchronization is efficiently extended to 12 leads by computing the SVD of each group of waves for each lead and optimally combining the corresponding first singular values. From the subsequent averaged 12 leads F-wave, 3 groups (Gi) of features were extracted: G1-(min, max), G2-(integral of the negative, of the positive part), G3-(integral of the wave, integral of the absolute value of the wave). For each group 24 features are then computed to feed the learning algorithm. A wrapper approach using an exhaustive search for feature selection is applied to maximize the mean classification accuracy computed over one to five features for each group (Gi) applied to the 12 leads. The logistic regression (LR) model is used for the supervised classifications. The mean accuracy ranges for the three groups, without validations, are G1:[0.69-0.83], G2:[0.68-0.81], G3:[0.68-0.80] for one feature up to five. The maximum accuracy comes from G1 with five features and is equal to 93%. The corresponding selected features are [max(I), max(III), max(V3), min(aVL), min(V5)]. In order to check for the risk of model overfitting, a leave one out cross-validation (LOOCV) is performed with these five features and gives 86% for the accuracy. When using all the 24 features simultaneously, the corresponding accuracy without validation is 93% and 67% for the LOOCV

Signal Processing and Machine Learning Techniques Towards Various Real-World Applications

abstract: Machine learning (ML) has played an important role in several modern technological innovations and has become an important tool for researchers in various fields of interest. Besides engineering, ML techniques have started to spread across various departments of study, like health-care, medicine, diagnostics, social science, finance, economics etc. These techniques require data to train the algorithms and model a complex system and make predictions based on that model. Due to development of sophisticated sensors it has become easier to collect large volumes of data which is used to make necessary hypotheses using ML. The promising results obtained using ML have opened up new opportunities of research across various departments and this dissertation is a manifestation of it. Here, some unique studies have been presented, from which valuable inference have been drawn for a real-world complex system. Each study has its own unique sets of motivation and relevance to the real world. An ensemble of signal processing (SP) and ML techniques have been explored in each study. This dissertation provides the detailed systematic approach and discusses the results achieved in each study. Valuable inferences drawn from each study play a vital role in areas of science and technology, and it is worth further investigation. This dissertation also provides a set of useful SP and ML tools for researchers in various fields of interest.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 201

WUB-IP : a high-precision UWB positioning scheme for indoor multi-user applications

High-precision positioning scheme, an important part of the indoor navigation system, can be implemented using an ultra-wide band (UWB) based ranging system. Recently, solutions for precise positioning in dense multi-path and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions have attracted a lot of attention in literature. On the other hand, it is expected that Waveform Division Multiple Access (WDMA) technology for multi-user UWB positioning application will be indispensable in the near future. In this regard, a WDMA-UWB based positioning scheme is investigated in this paper, for enhancing the performance of positioning accuracy in multi-user applications. In accordance with practical requirements of indoor positioning, we propose a new indoor positioning scheme, termed as WUB-IP. This scheme adopts WDMA for multiple access, and utilizes an entropy-based approach for the Time of Arrival (TOA) estimation. Moreover, a transfer learning approach is used for ranging error mitigation in NLOS conditions, in order to improve the positioning accuracy in NLOS conditions. System-level simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme enhances the performance of indoor positioning for multi-user applications

Brain Connectivity Networks for the Study of Nonlinear Dynamics and Phase Synchrony in Epilepsy

Assessing complex brain activity as a function of the type of epilepsy and in the context of the 3D source of seizure onset remains a critical and challenging endeavor. In this dissertation, we tried to extract the attributes of the epileptic brain by looking at the modular interactions from scalp electroencephalography (EEG). A classification algorithm is proposed for the connectivity-based separation of interictal epileptic EEG from normal. Connectivity patterns of interictal epileptic discharges were investigated in different types of epilepsy, and the relation between patterns and the epileptogenic zone are also explored in focal epilepsy. A nonlinear recurrence-based method is applied to scalp EEG recordings to obtain connectivity maps using phase synchronization attributes. The pairwise connectivity measure is obtained from time domain data without any conversion to the frequency domain. The phase coupling value, which indicates the broadband interdependence of input data, is utilized for the graph theory interpretation of local and global assessment of connectivity activities. The method is applied to the population of pediatric individuals to delineate the epileptic cases from normal controls. A probabilistic approach proved a significant difference between the two groups by successfully separating the individuals with an accuracy of 92.8%. The investigation of connectivity patterns of the interictal epileptic discharges (IED), which were originated from focal and generalized seizures, was resulted in a significant difference ( ) in connectivity matrices. It was observed that the functional connectivity maps of focal IED showed local activities while generalized cases showed global activated areas. The investigation of connectivity maps that resulted from temporal lobe epilepsy individuals has shown the temporal and frontal areas as the most affected regions. In general, functional connectivity measures are considered higher order attributes that helped the delineation of epileptic individuals in the classification process. The functional connectivity patterns of interictal activities can hence serve as indicators of the seizure type and also specify the irritated regions in focal epilepsy. These findings can indeed enhance the diagnosis process in context to the type of epilepsy and effects of relative location of the 3D source of seizure onset on other brain areas

Measurements, Models, Systems and Design

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Affective Man-Machine Interface: Unveiling human emotions through biosignals

As is known for centuries, humans exhibit an electrical profile. This profile is altered through various psychological and physiological processes, which can be measured through biosignals; e.g., electromyography (EMG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). These biosignals can reveal our emotions and, as such, can serve as an advanced man-machine interface (MMI) for empathic consumer products. However, such a MMI requires the correct classification of biosignals to emotion classes. This chapter starts with an introduction on biosignals for emotion detection. Next, a state-of-the-art review is presented on automatic emotion classification. Moreover, guidelines are presented for affective MMI. Subsequently, a research is presented that explores the use of EDA and three facial EMG signals to determine neutral, positive, negative, and mixed emotions, using recordings of 21 people. A range of techniques is tested, which resulted in a generic framework for automated emotion classification with up to 61.31% correct classification of the four emotion classes, without the need of personal profiles. Among various other directives for future research, the results emphasize the need for parallel processing of multiple biosignals

Relative Entropy (RE) Based LTI System Modeling Equipped with time delay Estimation and Online Modeling

This paper proposes an impulse response modeling in presence of input and noisy output of a linear time-invariant (LTI) system. The approach utilizes Relative Entropy (RE) to choose the optimum impulse response estimate, optimum time delay and optimum impulse response length. The desired RE is the Kulback-Lielber divergence of the estimated distribution from its unknown true distribution. A unique probabilistic validation approach estimates the desired relative entropy and minimizes this criterion to provide the impulse response estimate. Classical methods have approached this system modeling problem from two separate angles for the time delay estimation and for the order selection. Time delay methods focus on time delay estimate minimizing various proposed criteria, while the existing order selection approaches choose the optimum impulse response length based on their proposed criteria. The strength of the proposed RE based method is in using the RE based criterion to estimate both the time delay and impulse response length simultaneously. In addition, estimation of the noise variance, when the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) is unknown is also concurrent and is based on optimizing the same RE based criterion. The RE based approach is also extended for online impulse response estimations. The online method reduces the model estimation computational complexity upon the arrival of a new sample. The introduced efficient stopping criteria for this online approaches is extremely valuable in practical applications. Simulation results illustrate precision and efficiency of the proposed method compared to the conventional time delay or order selection approaches.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figure

Personalizing Simulations of the Human Atria : Intracardiac Measurements, Tissue Conductivities, and Cellular Electrophysiology

This work addresses major challenges of heart model personalization. Analysis techniques for clinical intracardiac electrograms determine wave direction and conduction velocity from single beats. Electrophysiological measurements are simulated to validate the models. Uncertainties in tissue conductivities impact on simulated ECGs. A minimal model of cardiac myocytes is adapted to the atria. This makes personalized cardiac models a promising technique to improve treatment of atrial arrhythmias