Cardiology

VG-BIO brings personalized modeling to analyses of the electrocardiogram ("ECG"), to provide an improved platform for ECG-based diagnostics, for conditions such as atrial fibrillation and T-wave alternans.


Because of this, substantial time is wasted with manual overreading. Furthermore, effective automated diagnosis of sporadic critical conditions (such as T-wave alternans and atrial fibrillation) remains elusive. Two issues at least partly responsible for the failure of software-automated ECG diagnostics are the variability in ECG wave morphology introduced by (1) variations in lead placement and (2) variations in physiology. As a result, ECGs from different subjects &mdash though qualitatively similar &mdash are different enough to cause problems for generalized algorithmic analyses.

VG-BIO's Similarity-Based Modeling obviates those problems with the use of a personalized model of each subject's ECG. The SBM model provides a personalized baseline against which transient or episodic abnormalities can readily be revealed. Personalization of the ECG baseline model controls for the problematic variation caused by diagnostically irrelevant lead placement and normal physiology differences.

Personalized modeling of the ECG creates a high-fidelity baseline of "normal" rhythm that highlights transient or episodic anomalies. The ECG signal in blue is modeled by the baseline in green; the difference is the residual in red. A very slight perturbation of the lead signal on the right is readily shown in the residual.

VG-BIO is working to develop simple self-screening applications that can make diagnostic screening for important cardiac conditions as easy, cheap and common as screening for other important diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.

Imagine purchasing a home-test kit from the local drug store, comprising an adhesive sensor pack with Bluetooth link, and software for your mobile device. ECG sensor data is transmitted to the mobile device 24x7. The small computing footprint of VG-BIO's technology enables processing of data real-time on a cell phone. The data or the results can be uploaded to a remote data center for review by a clinician, either over the cell network or via a home internet connection.

The critical piece of this solution is technology that can handle the variances caused by lead placement and human-to-human physiology differences. Our SBM technology is uniquely capable of dealing with these issues.