Quantifying organization during atrial fibrillation based on order statistics correlation coefficient

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a type of abnormal heart rhythm exhibiting rapid and irregular patterns. Quantifying the extent of organization (regularity) is of great clinical importance for assessing the effectiveness of antiarrhythmic drugs as well as AF detection. In this paper we propose an organization index (OIx) that quantifies AF organization based on the order statistics correlation coefficient (OSCC) previously developed by the present authors. For comparison, we also construct another similar index (OIp) based on the classical Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient (PPMCC). Statistical evidences suggest that (a) OIx is capable of distinguishing fibrillatory rhythms (AF) from nonfibrillatory rhythms, such as Atrial flutter (AFL); (b) OIx can reflect the effectiveness of adenosine, a drug commonly used during electrophysiological procedures; and (c) OIx performs better than OIp. © 2008 IEEE.link_to_subscribed_fulltex