Currently, there are no electrocardiographic (ECG) methods for pre-hospital identification of non-ST elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI), a subgroup that accounts for around two-thirds of all heart attack patients and affected more than 4 million individuals in the U.S. alone last year. NSTEMI heart attack cases are usually diagnosed via time-consuming methods including blood serum biomarkers or cardiac catheterization, and there is a high risk of missed diagnosis, representing a major medical malpractice issue. Lack of early identification means that mortality is highest amongst NSTEMI patients compared to other heart attack sufferers; an ECG method to identify NSTEMI patients could save around 30,000 lives annually in the United States.
Immediately after cardiac contraction (depolarization) and prior to cardiac relaxation (repolarization), the cardiac muscle undergoes no electrical activity (top figure). However, during lack of oxygen supply due to infarction (ischemia), the repolarization changes occur early after depolarization, disturbing the ST segment and potentially causing elevation (bottom left). Despite ongoing electrical dispersion during early repolarization, ST elevation does not always occur during ischemia (bottom right), requiring invasive testing to rule out infarction.
Description
EMPIRE is software that uses clinical ECG data from UPMC to perform sophisticated signal processing to characterize the repolarization signal of the ECG to create a score of ischemic myocardial injury. After collecting and filtering data, it uses pattern recognition and neural network techniques to classify the type of myocardial infarction and identify whether a patient has NSTEMI or not. The software is built in an internet cloud that provides real-time advice for clinicians as they perform ECGs, allowing a quick response,
earlier treatment, and improved chances of survival
Applications
• Diagnosing NSTEMI-type heart attacks in a pre-hospital environment
• Differentiating between STEMI and NSTEMI
Advantages
• Improved identification times compared to blood tests or cardiac catheterization
• Reduces chances of missing a diagnosis
• Cloud-based software is accessible and fast
• Uses data already collected when medical professionals suspect a heart attack
Invention Readiness
Software
IP Status
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20180055397A1Related Publication(s)
Al-Zaiti, S. S., Martin-Gill, C., Sejdić, E., Alrawashdeh, M., & Callaway, C. (2015). Rationale, development, and implementation of the Electrocardiographic Methods for the Prehospital Identification of Non-ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction Events (EMPIRE). Journal of Electrocardiology, 48(6), 921–926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelectrocard.2015.08.014
