An Innovative Approach to ECG Ventricular Activity Suppression in Persistent Supraventricular Tachycardia

Abstract

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is a common arrhythmia affecting the heart upper chambers, causing symptoms like palpitations and dizziness, and potentially leading to clot formation. Diagnosis involves an ECG to visualize the P-wave, which is straightforward in sinus rhythm but challenging during tachycardia due to QRST waves masking the P-wave. Unmasking the P-wave typically requires signal analysis to cancel out the QRST waves. The dataset, ollected from Hospital Cl´ınico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca Arrhythmia Unit, includes six SVT studies and all their related and recorded signals. These records cover various SVT types, such as orthodromic tachycardias or intranodal tachycardia. Our method involves creating a high-quality template from the sinus rhythm, which is then subtracted from the tachycardia signal to extract the P-wave. Our experiments focused on canceling the QRS complex, with or without the T-wave. The outcome was checked to represent an improvement in visual detection in 66.7% of the cases. The algorithm developed cancels the QRS-T waves, considering the corrected QT value and aiding accurate diagnosis.