Signal analysis system for heart condition determination

1. A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection, comprising:

an interface for receiving sampled data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over a plurality of heart beat cycles;

a signal processor for automatically for an individual heart cycle

decomposing a portion of the sampled data within a heart cycle associated with atrial activity, to a plurality of different subcomponent signals in a time domain,

associating individual decomposed subcomponents of said portion with corresponding different cardiac rotors and determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents indicating relative significance of the different cardiac rotors in a cardiac atrial condition; and

a reproduction device for providing data indicating the determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents indicating relative significance of the different cardiac rotors in a cardiac atrial condition.

2. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents indicate amplitude of individual subcomponents and whether individual rotor components are relatively fast or slow and

said signal processor decomposes a portion of the received sampled data in a time interval from start of a P wave to a peak of a succeeding R wave, representing a depolarization and repolarization time interval in an individual heart cycle.

3. A system according to claim 2 , wherein

said signal processor decomposes said portion of the sampled data in a plurality of successive heart cycles.

4. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said sampled data comprises intra-cardiac data indicating electrical activity of the patient heart from a plurality of sites in the patient heart and said signal processor automatically associates said plurality of different subcomponent signals with anatomical location and provides data indicating relative significance and anatomical location of the different cardiac rotors in a cardiac atrial condition.

5. A system according to claim 4 , including

a treatment processor for automatically providing data indicating treatment suggestions in response to said data indicating relative significance and anatomical location of the different cardiac rotors.

6. A system according to claim 5 , wherein

said treatment suggestions comprise at least one of, (a) prioritized location of anatomical sites for ablation, (b) location of anatomical sites for electrical stimulation and (c) medication.

7. A system according to claim 1 , including

a comparator for comparing at least one value of said determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents or a value derived from a value of said determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents with a threshold value to provide a comparison indicator; and

a patient monitor for in response to said comparison indicator indicating a calculated subcomponent characteristic value exceeds the threshold value, generating an alert message associated with the threshold value.

8. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically determines a number of rotors in response to the rotors having characteristics exceeding a threshold.

9. A system according to claim 8 , wherein

The characteristics of the rotors are derived in response to at least one of, (a) an energy value and (b) a frequency.

10. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically determines a number of rotors in response to characteristics of said decomposed subcomponents.

11. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically decomposes the sampled data to a plurality of different subcomponent signals in the time domain using empirical mode decomposition.

12. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically decomposes the sampled data to a plurality of different subcomponent signals in the time domain using at least one of, (a) independent component analysis and (b) principal component analysis.

13. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically determines a number of rotors in response to a rotor signal having an energy characteristic exceeding a threshold.

14. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor automatically determines at least one of, (a) a signal frequency ratio associated with component frequencies of a single subcomponent and (b) a signal frequency ratio associated with dominant component frequencies of different subcomponents.

15. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor employs a heart cycle synchronization signal in automatically decomposing the sampled data.

16. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor provides a subcomponent characteristic value by averaging characteristic values over a plurality of heart cycles.

17. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor determines a standard deviation or variance of the determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents.

18. A system according to claim 1 , wherein

said signal processor determines a ratio of an average of a plurality of characteristic values to a standard deviation or variance of a plurality of characteristic values.

19. A system according to claim 1 , including

a repository of mapping information, associating ranges of characteristic values with corresponding medical conditions and including

a comparator for comparing characteristic values with said ranges to provide a comparison indicator identifying a medical condition.

20. A system according to claim 19 , wherein

said mapping information associates ranges of the characteristic values with particular patient demographic characteristics and with corresponding medical conditions and said system uses patient demographic data including at least one of, age, weight, gender and height in comparing the characteristic value with said ranges and generates an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

21. A system according to claim 18 , wherein

said medical condition comprises Atrial fibrillation.

22. A method for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection, comprising the activities of:

receiving sampled data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over a plurality of heart beat cycles;

automatically for an individual heart cycle decomposing a portion of the sampled data within a heart cycle associated with atrial activity, to a plurality of different subcomponent signals in a time domain;

automatically associating individual decomposed subcomponents of said portion with corresponding different cardiac rotors and determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents indicating relative significance of the different cardiac rotors in a cardiac atrial condition; and

providing data indicating the determined characteristics of the decomposed subcomponents indicating relative significance of the different cardiac rotors in a cardiac atrial condition.

23. A method according to claim 22 , wherein

said subcomponent characteristics indicate amplitude of individual subcomponents and including the activity of

decomposing a portion of the received sampled data in a time interval start of a P wave to a peak of a succeeding R wave representing a depolarization and repolarization time interval in an individual heart cycle.