A novel non-invasive technique using Fast Fourier Transforms of ECG segments can quantitatively characterize atrial synchrony in AF and AFL, with peak bandwidth serving as a potentially useful metric.
Atrial electric; synchrony during erratic heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and flutter (AFL) are difficult to characterize quantitatively from the surface electrocardiogram (ECG). In this investigation, we developed a non-invasive technique to quantitatively characterize sub-types of AF and AFL commonly observed in man based on independent measures of atrial rate, regularity, and coarseness. Fast Fourier Transforms of multiple ECG fibrillation segments were signal averaged and atrial rate (frequency at peak power), regularity (bandwidth of spectral peak), and coarseness (total power) were analyzed in 10 patients. Peak bandwidth was independent of other spectal parameters and was corraborated as a potentially useful metric of atrial synchrony based on traditional ECG classifications.
Rosenbaum et al. (Wed,) studied this question.