Artificial intelligence for automated left ventricular systolic dysfunction detection using a wearable cardiac patch incorporated with synchronized phonocardiogram and electrocardiogram
Authors: Zhang W L , Song B , Huang Q J , Quan W W , Zhang R Y 
Published: October 2024

Background

Left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) is characterized by a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and is associated with three times the risk of developing Heart failure (HF). We aimed to test an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm applied to synchronized phonocardiography (PCG) and electrocardiography (ECG) signals, recorded with a wearable device, to validate its potential as a screening tool for LVSD.

Methods

Using ECG and PCG data collected from 1960 admitted patients in a hospital, we trained an AI algorithm to detect the LVSD. There are two ways of defining LVSD, one group is defined by LVEF &lt;50% and the other is defined by LVEF 40% as measured by echocardiography. The AI algorithm followed a two-step detection structure. In the first phase, ECG signals were processed by wavelet denoising and baseline wander correction, and PCG signals were converted to the frequency domain via wavelet transformation. We developed a 1D CNN-based U-Net variant model to pinpoint electromechanical activation time (EMAT). Addressing the challenge of processing multimodal signals, we devised a contrastive learning approach that mandates the encoders for different modalities to generate embeddings within the same feature space. This trained encoder, along with the decoder in U-Net, is subsequently fine-tuned for EMAT detection. The AI-EMAT% was obtained by adjusting detected EMAT based on RR interval. For the second phase, random forest regression is used to estimate LVEF, incorporating features such as AI-EMAT% and clinical data, including age and gender. For LVSD detection, we evaluated the performance of methods by bifurcating AI-estimated LVEF% (AI-predict LVEF%) based on thresholds of 40% and 50%, and by directly estimating AI-EMAT% cutoff. The evaluation of LVSD detection algorithm, conducted via 2-fold cross-validation, involves dividing the dataset into two subsets, with each alternately serving as training and testing sets to ensure a fair assessment.

Results

We recruited 1960 patients (1430 [72.96%] male). 357 (18.21%) had an ejection fraction of 50% or lower, and 157 (8.01%) had an ejection fraction of 40% or lower. In detecting LVSD of LVEF&lt;50%, AI-EMAT% yielded an AUROC of 0.86, sensitivity of 73.7%, and specificity of 80.7%. While AI-predict LVEF% approach resulted in an AUROC of 0.89, sensitivity of 81.8%, and specificity of 81.5%. In detecting LVSD of LVEF&lt;40%, AI-EMAT% yielded an AUROC of 0.89, sensitivity of 85.4%, and specificity of 76.0%. While AI-predict LVEF% outputs resulted in an AUROC of 0.91, sensitivity of 92.4%, and specificity of 76.8%.

Conclusions

We developed an automated algorithm to detect LVSD using a wearable device that incorporated synchronized PCG and ECG signals, demonstrating robust performance across different subgroups. This approach represents a strategy for automated screening of LV systolic dysfunction, particularly beneficial in resource-limited settings.Baseline and AUROCAI algorithm