Grammatic representation of beat sequences for fuzzy arrhythmia diagnosis

Abstract

The final stage of a system for automatic monitoring of cardiac arrhythmias is the diagnosis of the rhythm or arrhythmia present in the patient during the monitoring process. In this paper we approach the detection process by means of the analysis of the electrocardiographic signal (ECG) on a surface lead produced by those arrhythmias which can be recognized by identifying specific beat sequences and taking into account contextual information, mainly rhythm information. We have developed a diagnosis process for arrhythmias which uses a fuzzy classification of beats according to their etiology or focus of origin. The process we describe permits a more adequate consideration by the user of the arrhythmias diagnosed by the system, mainly in those cases in which the information derived from ECG analysis is not determinant.