The Technology
The time variation between consecutive heartbeats is commonly referred to as heart rate variability (HRV). Loss of complexity in HRV has been documented in several cardiovascular diseases and has been associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality. However, the mechanisms that control HRV are not well understood nor is it known whether and how HRV patterns might be an indicator of functional or structural heart diseases.
Number of commercial and open source HRV software products are available. In general, existing HRV software are (1) not tailored to the analysis of mammalian data other than that of humans; (2) not tailored to perform such variability analysis at multiple level of integration (i.e. form the action potential, electrogram and electrocardiogram); (3) does not allow manual annotation of the signal quality and correction of mis detected R-peaks; (4) provides neither a comprehensive open source code nor a functional user-friendly interface.
The invention standardizes the analysis of HRV across two new dimensions: (1) multiple mammalian specie and (2) the level of integration (i.e. sinoatrial cell, tissue and whole heart). As current HRV software are limited to the HRV analysis, of human ECG data. The new software specifically designed for HRV analysis from electrophysiological data (action potential, electrogram, electrocardiogram) and other pulsatile data coming from multiple mammals including humans.
Advantages
- Software specifically designed for HRV analysis from electrophysiological data (action potential, electrogram, electrocardiogram) and other pulsatile data coming from
- multiple mammals including humans.
- Both algorithms and user interface are open source, it is easy to add additional HRV measures to the software or adapt it to any research- specific usage
- PhysioZoo software has several novel functionalities not available in existing HRV software. it allows:
- manual annotation of the signal quality and correction of mis detected R-peaks,
- PhysioZoo interface HRV analysis to be performed on multiple segments (batch processing), thus making it possible to track changes in HRV measures over time for a given record.
Applications and Opportunities
- The PhysioZoo program can be used in industry to harness the physiological information contained in pulsatile signals such as the electrocardiogram and photoplestismogram.
- Can lead to the creation of signal processing and machine learning algorithms which can be embedded on devices such as smartwatches or medical grade devices.
- Can be used for drug screening on animals’ cardiac function or for fundamental academic research interested in better elucidating the heart function.
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