Comparison of methods for editing of ectopic beats in measurements of short-term non-linear heart rate dynamics

Authors: Tarkiainen, Tuula H.; Kuusela, Tom A.¹; Tahvanainen, Kari U. O.²; Hartikainen, Juha E. K.³; Tiittanen, Pekka⁴; Timonen, Kirsi L.²; Vanninen, Esko J.²

Source: Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging, Volume 27, Number 2, March 2007 , pp. 126-133(8)

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Abstract:

Summary

Non-linear heart rate (HR) dynamics characterizes the fractal properties and complexity of the variations in HR. Ventricular and supraventricular ectopic beats might introduce a mathematical artefact to the analyses on sinus rhythm. We therefore evaluated the effects of different editing practices for ectopic beats such that 753 40-min ECG recordings were (i) not edited for the ectopic beats, or the ectopic beats were edited with (ii) an interpolation or with (iii) a deletion method before the analyses of non-linear HR dynamics. The non-linear HR dynamics analyses included detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), approximate entropy, symbolic dynamics (SymDyn), fractal dimension and return map (RM). We found that the short-term scaling exponent (α₁) of DFA, forbidden words of SymDyn and RM were sensitive measurements to the ectopic beats and there were strong correlations between these measurements and the number of ectopic beats. In addition, the unedited ectopic beats significantly lowered the stability of these measurements. However, the editing either with interpolation or deletion method corrected the measurements for the bias caused by the ectopic beats. On the contrary, the entropy measurements were not as sensitive to the ectopic beats. In conclusion, the ectopic beats affect the non-linear HR dynamics of sinus rhythm differently, causing a more marked bias in fractal than in complexity measurements of non-linear HR dynamics. This erroneous effect of ectopic beats can be corrected with a proper editing of these measurements. Therefore, there is an obvious need for standardized editing practices for ectopic beats before the analysis of non-linear HR dynamics.

Keywords: autonomic nervous system; premature beats; reproducibility; stability; ventricular beats

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-097X.2007.00726.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Physics, University of Turku, Turku 2: Department of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Kuopio, Kuopio 3: Department of Medicine, Kuopio University Hospital and University of Kuopio, Kuopio 4: Unit of Environmental Epidemiology, National Public Health Institute, Kuopio, Finland

Publication date: 2007-03-01

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Anatomy & Physiology ,  Radiology & Imaging
• By this author: Tarkiainen, Tuula H. ;  Kuusela, Tom A. ;  Tahvanainen, Kari U. O. ;  Hartikainen, Juha E. K. ;  Tiittanen, Pekka ;  Timonen, Kirsi L. ;  Vanninen, Esko J.

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers