Date of Award

6-2009

Department/Program

Biomedical and General Engineering

Advisor

Lily Laiho

Abstract

The Cardiac Rhythm Management Division of St. Jude Medical specializes in the development of implantable cardioverter defibrillators that improve the quality of life for patients diagnosed with a variety of cardiac arrhythmias, especially for patients prone to sudden cardiac death. With the goal to improve detection of cardiac arrhythmias, this study explored the value in time-frequency analysis of intracardiac electrogram in four steps. The first two steps characterized, in the frequency domain, the waveforms that construct the cardiac cycle. The third step developed a new algorithm that putatively provides the least computationally expensive way to identifying cardiac waveforms in the frequency domain. Lastly, this novel approach to analyzing intracardiac electrogram was compared to a threshold crossing algorithm that strictly operates in the time domain and that is currently utilized by St. Jude Medical. The new algorithm demonstrated an equally effective method in identifying the QRS complex on the ventricular channel. The next steps in pursing time-frequency analysis of intracardiac electrogram include implementing the new algorithm on a testing platform that emulates the latest implantable cardioverter defibrillator manufactured by St. Jude Medical and pursuing a similar algorithm that can be employed on the atrial channel.

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