Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Assessment of the Heart Rate Corrected QT Interval Using a Mobile Electrocardiogram Device

John R. Giudicessi, Matthew Schram, J. Martijn Bos, Conner D. Galloway, Jacqueline B. Shreibati, Patrick W. Johnson, Rickey E. Carter, Levi W. Disrud, Robert Kleiman, Zachi I. Attia, Peter A. Noseworthy, Paul A. Friedman, David E. Albert, Michael J. Ackerman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Heart rate–corrected QT interval (QTc) prolongation, whether secondary to drugs, genetics including congenital long QT syndrome, and/or systemic diseases including SARS-CoV-2–mediated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), can predispose to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. Currently, QTc assessment and monitoring relies largely on 12-lead electrocardiography. As such, we sought to train and validate an artificial intelligence (AI)–enabled 12-lead ECG algorithm to determine the QTc, and then prospectively test this algorithm on tracings acquired from a mobile ECG (mECG) device in a population enriched for repolarization abnormalities. METHODS: Using >1.6 million 12-lead ECGs from 538 200 patients, a deep neural network (DNN) was derived (patients for training, n = 250 767; patients for testing, n = 107 920) and validated (n = 179 513 patients) to predict the QTc using cardiologist-overread QTc values as the “gold standard”. The ability of this DNN to detect clinically-relevant QTc prolongation (eg, QTc ≥500 ms) was then tested prospectively on 686 patients with genetic heart disease (50% with long QT syndrome) with QTc values obtained from both a 12-lead ECG and a prototype mECG device equivalent to the commercially-available AliveCor KardiaMobile 6L. RESULTS: In the validation sample, strong agreement was observed between human over-read and DNN-predicted QTc values (−1.76±23.14 ms). Similarly, within the prospective, genetic heart disease–enriched dataset, the difference between DNN-predicted QTc values derived from mECG tracings and those annotated from 12-lead ECGs by a QT expert (−0.45±24.73 ms) and a commercial core ECG laboratory [10.52±25.64 ms] was nominal. When applied to mECG tracings, the DNN’s ability to detect a QTc value ≥500 ms yielded an area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.97, 80.0%, and 94.4%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Using smartphone-enabled electrodes, an AI DNN can predict accurately the QTc of a standard 12-lead ECG. QTc estimation from an AI-enabled mECG device may provide a cost-effective means of screening for both acquired and congenital long QT syndrome in a variety of clinical settings where standard 12-lead electrocardiography is not accessible or cost-effective.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1274-1286
Number of pages13
JournalCirculation
Volume143
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 30 2021

Keywords

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Electrocardiography
  • Long QT syndrome
  • Machine learning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Physiology (medical)

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