Radiofrequency catheter ablation of left ventricular tachycardia in the normal heart

Machine learning for distinguishing right from left premature ventricular contraction origin using surface electrocardiogram features

BACKGROUND

Precise localization of the site of origin of premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) before ablation can facilitate the planning and execution of the electrophysiological procedure.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to develop a predictive model that can be used to differentiate PVCs between the left ventricular outflow tract and right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT) using surface electrocardiogram characteristics.

METHODS

A total of 851 patients undergoing radiofrequency ablation of premature ventricular beats from January 2015 to March 2022 were enrolled. Ninety-two patients were excluded. The other 759 patients were enrolled into the development (n = 605), external validation (n = 104), or prospective cohort (n = 50). The development cohort consisted of the training group (n = 423) and the internal validation group (n = 182). Machine learning algorithms were used to construct predictive models for the origin of PVCs using body surface electrocardiogram features.

RESULTS

In the development cohort, the Random Forest model showed a maximum receiver operating characteristic curve area of 0.96. In the external validation cohort, the Random Forest model surpasses 4 reported algorithms in predicting performance (accuracy 94.23%; sensitivity 97.10%; specificity 88.57%). In the prospective cohort, the Random Forest model showed good performance (accuracy 94.00%; sensitivity 85.71%; specificity 97.22%).

CONCLUSION

Random Forest algorithm has improved the accuracy of distinguishing the origin of PVCs, which surpasses 4 previous standards, and would be used to identify the origin of PVCs before the interventional procedure.