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ECG-based pulse detection during cardiac arrest using random forest classifier

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Abstract

Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the industrialized world. Pulse detection is essential for the recognition of the arrest and the recognition of return of spontaneous circulation during therapy, and it is therefore crucial for the survival of the patient. This paper introduces the first method based exclusively on the ECG for the automatic detection of pulse during cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Random forest classifier is used to efficiently combine up to nine features from the time, frequency, slope, and regularity analysis of the ECG. Data from 191 cardiac arrest patients was used, and 1177 ECG segments were processed, 796 with pulse and 381 without pulse. A leave-one-patient out cross validation approach was used to train and test the algorithm. The statistical distributions of sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) for pulse detection were estimated using 500 patient-wise bootstrap partitions. The mean (std) SE/SP for nine-feature classifier was 88.4 (1.8) %/89.7 (1.4) %, respectively. The designed algorithm only requires 4-s-long ECG segments and could be integrated in any commercial automated external defibrillator. The method permits to detect the presence of pulse accurately, minimizing interruptions in cardiopulmonary resuscitation therapy, and could contribute to improve survival from cardiac arrest.

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Funding

This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, jointly with the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), project TEC2015-64678-R, by the University of the Basque Country via the Ayudas a Grupos de Investigación GIU17/031 and the unit UFI11/16, and by the Basque Government through the Emaitek programme and the grant PRE_2017_1_0112.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communications Engineering Department, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Alameda Urquijo S/N, 48013, Bilbao, Spain

    Andoni Elola, Elisabete Aramendi, Unai Irusta & Javier Del Ser

  2. OPTIMA (Optimization, Modeling and Analytics) Research Area, TECNALIA, Parque Tecnologico, Edificio 700, 48160, Derio, Spain

    Javier Del Ser

  3. Data Science Group, Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Alameda de Mazarredo 14, 48009, Bilbao, Spain

    Javier Del Ser

  4. Department of Applied Mathematics, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Rafael Moreno “Pitxitxi”, 3, 48013, Bilbao, Spain

    Erik Alonso

  5. Department of Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, 97239-3098, USA

    Mohamud Daya

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  1. Andoni Elola
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Correspondence to Andoni Elola.

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Ethical approval

The CPR process files used in this study were collected as part of an effort to develop an airway check algorithm using the capnography signal. Since these raw data files have no identifying information, the Institutional Review Board at the Oregon Health & Science University determined that the proposed activity is not human subject research because the proposed activity does not meet the definition of human subject per 45 CFR 46.102(f).

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Elola, A., Aramendi, E., Irusta, U. et al. ECG-based pulse detection during cardiac arrest using random forest classifier. Med Biol Eng Comput 57, 453–462 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1892-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1892-2

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