Fast non-invasive ventricular fibrillation detection method using pseudo Wigner-Ville distribution

Detection of Ventricular fibrillation (VF) at an early stage is a crucial point in order to lower the risk of sudden death and allow the specialist to have greater reaction time to give the patient a good recovering therapy and avoid unrecoverable damages to the cardiac tissue. We present an algorithm oriented to real-time detection of Ventricular Fibrillation in order to be used as a part of monitorization systems in Intensive Care Units or ambulatory centres. The study has been done using the AHA (American Heart Association) Database, focusing mainly in the 8200 series, and MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology Database. The detection algorithm combines both time domain and time frequency domain parameters. Using the appropriate parameters, the detection algorithm discerns between VF and non-VF rhythms, including those VF-like rhythms like some types of ventricular tachycardia (VT) in some cases. A VF-Flutter sensibility of 86%, and an average specificity of 94.3% including VT separation is obtained.