Keywords
atrial fibrillation - model - neural network - sleep apnea - obstructive
Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is common in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).
However, AF is not systematically evaluated during sleep studies.
Objective: To develop an artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm for detection of AF in patients
with suspected OSA undergoing Biologix sleep study.
Methods: The study was conducted in two parts. In the first part, we used 4 public databases
and RR intervals were detected by electrocardiogram (ECG). The k-fold cross-validation
method (k=10) was used to develop and validate an ANN algorithm to detect AF from
RR intervals. The ANN model produced cardiac rhythm (AF or normal) predictions for
every group of 60 heart beats throughout each exam. In the second part of the study,
the Biologix oximeter photoplethysmography (PPG) signal was used to detect heart beats.
We used data from patients that underwent simultaneous type 1 polysomnography with
ECG and Biologix.
Results: In the first part, the model was trained on 18M RR intervals, with 50% being positive
for AF. The model was then tested on 36M intervals, from 249 patients, of which 169
(68%) and 9M beats (22%) were positive for AF. The ANN model, evaluated across all
folds, had an area under the curve per beat of 0.994 [95% CI: 0.992-0.996]. The sensitivity
to detect AF was 92% [95% CI: 86-95%], specificity of 98% [95% CI: 90-99%] and accuracy
of 93% [95% CI: 90-96%]. In the second part, 9 patients (5%) had AF confirmed by polysomnography
ECG. The mean F1-score for the quality of R peak detection on PPG was 0.95 [95% CI:
0.85-1]. Patient classification using PPG data had sensitivity of 100% [95% CI: 63-100%]
and specificity of 100% [95% CI: 97-100%], with McNemar's test yielding p<0.01.
Conclusion: The ANN algorithm developed is accurate in detecting AF using both the ECG RR intervals
and the PPG from the Biologix oximetry system. Therefore, the new algorithm can detect
AF in patients with suspected OSA undergoing Biologix sleep study.