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Assessment of the relational strength between triggers detected in physiological signals and the occurrence of atrial fibrillation episodes

Plusciauskaite, Vilma ; Solosenko, Andrius ; Janciuleviciūte, Karolina ; Marozas, Vaidotas ; Sörnmo, Leif LU and Petrenas, Andrius (2024) In Physiological Measurement 45(9).
Abstract

Objective. Despite the growing interest in understanding the role of triggers of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), solutions beyond questionnaires to identify a broader range of triggers remain lacking. This study aims to investigate the relation between triggers detected in wearable-based physiological signals and the occurrence of AF episodes. Approach. Week-long physiological signals were collected during everyday activities from 35 patients with paroxysmal AF, employing an ECG patch attached to the chest and a photoplethysmogram (PPG)-based wrist-worn device. The signals acquired by the patch were used for detecting potential triggers due to physical exertion, psychophysiological stress, lying on the left side, and sleep... (More)

Objective. Despite the growing interest in understanding the role of triggers of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), solutions beyond questionnaires to identify a broader range of triggers remain lacking. This study aims to investigate the relation between triggers detected in wearable-based physiological signals and the occurrence of AF episodes. Approach. Week-long physiological signals were collected during everyday activities from 35 patients with paroxysmal AF, employing an ECG patch attached to the chest and a photoplethysmogram (PPG)-based wrist-worn device. The signals acquired by the patch were used for detecting potential triggers due to physical exertion, psychophysiological stress, lying on the left side, and sleep disturbances. To assess the relation between detected triggers and the occurrence of AF episodes, a measure of relational strength is employed accounting for pre- and post-trigger AF burden. The usefulness of ECG- and PPG-based AF detectors in determining AF burden and assessing the relational strength is also analyzed. Main results. Physical exertion emerged as the trigger associated with the largest increase in relational strength for the largest number of patients (p < 0.01). On the other hand, no significant difference was observed for psychophysiological stress and sleep disorders. The relational strength of the detected AF exhibits a moderate correlation with the relational strength of annotated AF, with r = 0.66 for ECG-based AF detection and r = 0.62 for PPG-based AF detection. Conclusions. The findings indicate a patient-specific increase in relational strength for all four types of trigger. Significance. The proposed approach has the potential to facilitate the implementation of longitudinal studies and can serve as a less biased alternative to questionnaire-based AF trigger detection.

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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
arrhythmia detection, atrial fibrillation episode occurrence, personalized arrhythmia management, remote monitoring
in
Physiological Measurement
volume
45
issue
9
article number
095011
publisher
IOP Publishing
external identifiers
  • pmid:39260405
  • scopus:85204819642
ISSN
0967-3334
DOI
10.1088/1361-6579/ad79b3
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
897d9a69-afb3-46de-84af-1f49f07a93d4
date added to LUP
2024-11-18 15:36:01
date last changed
2025-07-01 10:36:05
@article{897d9a69-afb3-46de-84af-1f49f07a93d4,
  abstract     = {{<p>Objective. Despite the growing interest in understanding the role of triggers of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF), solutions beyond questionnaires to identify a broader range of triggers remain lacking. This study aims to investigate the relation between triggers detected in wearable-based physiological signals and the occurrence of AF episodes. Approach. Week-long physiological signals were collected during everyday activities from 35 patients with paroxysmal AF, employing an ECG patch attached to the chest and a photoplethysmogram (PPG)-based wrist-worn device. The signals acquired by the patch were used for detecting potential triggers due to physical exertion, psychophysiological stress, lying on the left side, and sleep disturbances. To assess the relation between detected triggers and the occurrence of AF episodes, a measure of relational strength is employed accounting for pre- and post-trigger AF burden. The usefulness of ECG- and PPG-based AF detectors in determining AF burden and assessing the relational strength is also analyzed. Main results. Physical exertion emerged as the trigger associated with the largest increase in relational strength for the largest number of patients (p &lt; 0.01). On the other hand, no significant difference was observed for psychophysiological stress and sleep disorders. The relational strength of the detected AF exhibits a moderate correlation with the relational strength of annotated AF, with r = 0.66 for ECG-based AF detection and r = 0.62 for PPG-based AF detection. Conclusions. The findings indicate a patient-specific increase in relational strength for all four types of trigger. Significance. The proposed approach has the potential to facilitate the implementation of longitudinal studies and can serve as a less biased alternative to questionnaire-based AF trigger detection.</p>}},
  author       = {{Plusciauskaite, Vilma and Solosenko, Andrius and Janciuleviciūte, Karolina and Marozas, Vaidotas and Sörnmo, Leif and Petrenas, Andrius}},
  issn         = {{0967-3334}},
  keywords     = {{arrhythmia detection; atrial fibrillation episode occurrence; personalized arrhythmia management; remote monitoring}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{9}},
  publisher    = {{IOP Publishing}},
  series       = {{Physiological Measurement}},
  title        = {{Assessment of the relational strength between triggers detected in physiological signals and the occurrence of atrial fibrillation episodes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6579/ad79b3}},
  doi          = {{10.1088/1361-6579/ad79b3}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}