Spectrum analysis for ventricular tachyarrhythmias

The processing of ECG (electrocardiogram) signals for the detection of ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) has been investigated. An approach is presented that takes advantage of the fact that the VT/VF ECG is irregular in the time domain, while it has a very good regularity in the frequency domain. The power spectrum was obtained by a fast Fourier transform of the ECG. A detection algorithm was developed and used for the analysis that can discriminate on the basis of five features: (1) the value of the highest peak in the spectrum; (2) the difference between the highest and the second highest peak; (3) the sum of the value of the highest peak and its neighboring spectrum; (4) the difference between the sum of the value and its neighboring spectrum of highest second highest peak; and (5) heart rate. Results are presented for the first feature.<>