Analysis of variability of R-R intervals for the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation: A new algorithm

Differences in successive R-R intervals (RRIs) were normalized by RRIs before and after the indexing beats (normalized DRs) in individuals with normal sinus rhythm (NSR) and 98.89% of normalized DRs were found to distribute within mean ± 0.100 (≒mean ± 3SD), whereas 73.47% were out of this range in atrial fibrillation (AF). When 7 out 20 normalized DRs fell outside of 0.000 ± 0.100, NSR (n = 129) and AF (n = 108) could be discriminated with high sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values (>99.0% for all). This method will be used in detecting AF candidates from a small number of heart beats or arterial pulses.