System and method for analyzing electrogram waveforms

TLDR: An electrogram analysis system and method for determining the quality of information gathered from electrical signals in biological tissue is described in this article. But the system is not suitable for the analysis of cardiac signals.

Abstract: An electrogram analysis system and method for determining the quality of information gathered from electrical signals in biological tissue. The system comprises a catheter having an array of at least two electrodes at its distal end, the electrodes detecting electrical signals emanating from the site of origin and providing relayed signals to a processor. The processor processes the relayed signals into waveforms and computes a quality of the relayed signals. The quality of the relayed signals is used to select higher quality signals for further analysis, such as site of origin determination and mapping. The relayed signals from the electrodes may also be used to determine a quality for a particular electrode channel. When the invention is used in cardiac applications, the relayed signal quality may comprise two components--a channel quality and a beat quality. The channel quality represents the value of information received from a particular electrode and channel, while the beat quality represents the value of a particular heart beat across all channels. The signal quality is displayed to the user. In cardiac applications, the channel quality can be displayed in a format corresponding to the shape of the electrode array, with channel quality from each electrode positioned in a corresponding position on the display. The display may also show the waveforms of the signal, such as the heart beat waveform in a cardiac procedure.