ECG-based prediction algorithm for imminent malignant ventricular arrhythmias using decision tree

Spontaneous prediction of malignant ventricular arrhythmia (MVA) is useful to avoid delay in rescue operations. Recently, researchers have developed several algorithms to predict MVA using various features derived from electrocardiogram (ECG). However, there are several unresolved issues regarding MVA prediction such as the effect of number of ECG features on a prediction remaining unclear, possibility that an alert for occurring MVA may arrive very late and uncertainty in the performance of the algorithm predicting MVA minutes before onset. To overcome the aforementioned problems, this research conducts an in-depth study on the number and types of ECG features that are implemented in a decision tree classifier. In addition, this research also investigates an algorithm’s execution time before the occurrence of MVA to minimize delays in warnings for MVA. Lastly, this research aims to study both the sensitivity and specificity of an algorithm to reveal the performance of MVA prediction algorithms from time to time. To strengthen the results of analysis, several classifiers such as support vector machine and naive Bayes are also examined for the purpose of comparison study. There are three phases required to achieve the objectives. The first phase is literature review on existing relevant studies. The second phase deals with design and development of four modules for predicting MVA. Rigorous experiments are performed in the feature selection and classification modules. The results show that eight ECG features with decision tree classifier achieved good prediction performance in terms of execution time and sensitivity. In addition, the results show that the highest percentage for sensitivity and specificity is 95% and 90% respectively, in the fourth 5-minute interval (15.1 minutes–20 minutes) that preceded the onset of an arrhythmia event. Such results imply that the fourth 5-minute interval would be the best time to perform prediction.