Background: Insertable cardiac monitors (ICMs) are indicated for long-term monitoring of patients with unexplained syncope or who are at risk for cardiac arrhythmias. The volume of ICM-transmitted information may result in long data review times to identify true and clinically relevant arrhythmias.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether artificial intelligence (AI) may improve ICM detection accuracy.
Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of consecutive patients implanted with the Confirm RxTM ICM (Abbott) and followed in a prospective observational study. This device continuously monitors subcutaneous electrocardiograms (SECGs) and transmits to clinicians information about detected arrhythmias and patient-activated symptomatic episodes. All SECGs were classified by expert electrophysiologists and by the WillemTM AI algorithm (IDOVEN).
Results: During mean follow-up of 23 months, of 20 ICM patients (mean age 68 ± 12 years; 50% women), 19 had 2261 SECGs recordings associated with cardiac arrhythmia detections or patient symptoms. True arrhythmias occurred in 11 patients: asystoles in 2, bradycardias in 3, ventricular tachycardias in 4, and atrial tachyarrhythmias (atrial tachycardia/atrial fibrillation [AT/AF]) in 10; with 6 patients having >1 arrhythmia type. AI algorithm overall accuracy for arrhythmia classification was 95.4%, with 97.19% sensitivity, 94.52% specificity, 89.74% positive predictive value, and 98.55% negative predictive value. Application of AI would have reduced the number of false-positive results by 98.0% overall: 94.0% for AT/AF, 87.5% for ventricular tachycardia, 99.5% for bradycardia, and 98.8% for asystole.
Conclusion: Application of AI to ICM-detected episodes is associated with high classification accuracy and may significantly reduce health care staff workload by triaging ICM data.
Keywords: Artificial intelligence; Detection accuracy; Insertable cardiac monitors.
© 2022 Heart Rhythm Society.