System for cardiac arrhythmia detection and characterization

1. A system for analyzing cardiac electrophysiological signals, the system comprising:

an acquisition processor for acquiring signal data representing heart electrical activity over a plurality of heart cycles, an individual heart cycle comprising a signal portion between successive sequential R waves;

a time interval detector using a signal peak detector for detecting a plurality of successive time intervals including individual time intervals comprising a time interval from a first peak of a first wave type occurring in a first heart cycle to a second peak of a second different wave type occurring in at least one of,

(a) a successive sequential second heart cycle and

(b) a third heart cycle successive and sequential to said second heart cycle; and

a data processor for processing the plurality of detected successive time intervals by, determining at least one interval parameter of, a mean, variance and standard deviation of said time intervals and generating an alert message in response to said interval parameter.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said first peak comprises a P wave.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein said second peak comprises at least one of a, Q wave, S wave, T wave and U wave.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first peak comprises an S wave and the second peak comprises a T wave.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein said data processor uses predetermined mapping information, associating ranges of said interval parameter or a value derived from said interval parameter with corresponding medical conditions, and compares said interval parameter or said value derived from said interval parameter, with said ranges and generates an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

6. A system according to claim 5 , wherein said predetermined mapping information associates ranges of said interval parameter or a value derived from said interval parameter with particular patient demographic characteristics and with corresponding medical conditions and said data processor uses patient demographic data including at least one of, age, weight, gender and height in comparing said interval parameter or a value derived from said interval parameter with said ranges and generating an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein said data processor uses predetermined mapping information, associating thresholds of said interval parameter or a value derived from said interval parameter with corresponding medical conditions, and compares said interval parameter or said value derived from said interval parameter, with said thresholds and generates an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

8. A system for analyzing cardiac electrophysiological signals, the system comprising:

an acquisition processor for acquiring normal and monitoring signal data representing heart electrical activity over a plurality of heart cycles, an individual heart cycle comprising a signal portion between successive sequential R waves; and

a data processor for processing said signal data by,

determining first frequency spectral distribution for the normal signal data and second frequency spectral distribution for the monitoring signal data,

determining a frequency interval between corresponding frequency component spectral peaks of the first and second frequency spectral distributions of said normal and monitoring signal data in different individual time intervals of said normal and monitoring signal data, and

in response to a change in the frequency interval between said spectral peaks, generating an alert message.

9. A system for analyzing cardiac electrophysiological signals, the system comprising:

an acquisition processor for acquiring normal and monitoring signal data representing heart electrical activity over a plurality of heart cycles, an individual heart cycle comprising a signal portion between successive sequential R waves;

a time interval detector using a signal peak detector for detecting a plurality of successive time intervals including individual time intervals comprising a time interval from a first peak occurring in a first heart cycle to a second peak occurring in at least one of,

(a) a successive sequential second heart cycle and

(b) a third heart cycle successive and sequential to said second heart cycle; and

a data processor for processing the plurality of detected successive time intervals by,

determining first frequency spectral distribution for the normal signal data and second frequency spectral distribution for the monitoring signal data,

comparing frequency component spectral peaks of the first and second frequency spectral distributions of said normal and monitoring signal data in different individual time intervals of said plurality of detected successive time intervals, and

in response to the comparison showing at least one of,

(a) change in amplitude and

(b) change in frequency interval between said spectral peaks, exceeding a predetermined threshold, generating an alert message.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein said data processor determines and compares peak frequency component energy representative values of corresponding frequency components of said normal and monitoring signal data in different individual time intervals of said plurality of detected successive time intervals and in response to the comparison showing change in peak frequency component energy representative value exceeding a predetermined threshold, generates an alert message.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein said energy representative value of a frequency component peak is derived in response to an integral of the square of frequency component amplitude values of said frequency component peak.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein said data processor determines and compares frequency component spectral peak amplitude of corresponding frequency components of said normal and monitoring signal data in different individual time intervals of said plurality of detected successive time intervals by comparing at least one of mean, variance and standard deviation of peak frequency component amplitude of said normal and monitoring signal data in said different individual time intervals.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein said data processor determines and compares frequency component spectral peaks of corresponding frequency components of said normal and monitoring signal data in different individual time intervals of said plurality of detected successive time intervals by comparing at least one of mean, variance and standard deviation of peak frequency of said normal and monitoring signal data in said different individual time intervals.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein said data processor uses predetermined mapping information, associating ranges of frequency component spectral peak amplitude or a value derived from said frequency component spectral peak amplitude with corresponding medical conditions, and compares said frequency component spectral peak amplitude or a value derived from said frequency component spectral peak amplitude, with said ranges and generates an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein said data processor uses predetermined mapping information, associating ranges of frequency component spectral peak frequency or a value derived from said frequency component spectral peak frequency with corresponding medical conditions, and compares said frequency component spectral peak amplitude or a value derived from said frequency component spectral peak frequency, with said ranges and generates an alert message indicating a potential medical condition.

16. A method for analyzing cardiac electrophysiological signals, comprising the activities of:

acquiring signal data representing heart electrical activity over a plurality of heart cycles, an individual heart cycle comprising a signal portion between successive sequential R waves;

using a signal peak detector for detecting a plurality of successive time intervals including individual time intervals comprising a time interval from a first peak of a first wave type occurring in a first heart cycle to a second peak of a second different wave type occurring in at least one of,

(a) a successive sequential second heart cycle and

(b) a third heart cycle successive and sequential to said second heart cycle; and

processing the plurality of detected successive time intervals by, determining at least one interval parameter of, a mean, variance and standard deviation of said time intervals and generating an alert message in response to said interval parameter.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein said first peak comprises a P wave.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein said second peak comprises at least one of a, Q wave, S wave, T wave and U wave.