Patent ID: 8862213
Filing Date: 2014-10-14
Classification: A61B

Abstract:
1. A computer-assisted method for quantitative characterization, comprising: preprocessing, by a computer system, a time series of an atrial fibrillation (AF) signal obtained from a patient; segmenting the time series of the AF signal into activation segments by the computer system, wherein the activation segments are sequential in the time series of the AF signal; obtaining local activation waveforms (LAW) from the activation segments that are sequential in the time series of the AF signal; determining degrees of similarity between the LAWs obtained from the time series of the AF signal, wherein the step of determining degrees of similarity between the LAWs comprises: identifying one or more critical regions in the patient's atria if the LAWs obtained from the time series of the AF signal have degrees of similarity exceeding a first threshold value; and characterizing atrial fibrillation in the patient based on the one or more critical regions identified in the patient's atria.