Atrial fibrillation (AF) prevalence is estimated to 1% of the general population in the United States. A shocking 30% to 60% of patients with AF are unaware of their diagnosis (silent AF). Therefore, optimal management of AF patients represents one of the most significant challenges of modern clinical cardiology. In the proposed project, we will evaluate a novel concept of patient monitoring utilizing a contactless video-based technology. Our preliminary results revealed that the presence of AF can be detected from the video of an individual's face. We will evaluate our AF detection technology when embedded into a tablet that automatically record facial videos when the user works on email, browses the internet or watches videos. We will conduct a study in which we will enroll symptomatic AF patients going through either radiofrequency ablation or electrical cardioversion. We will follow these patients during 14 days after their procedure. Using a patch continuously recording ECG during the follow-up period, we will evaluate if the proposed video technology can detect the early recurrence of AF in these patients. The primary goal of the study is to demonstrate that non-constraining contactless video- based technology represents a robust home-based monitoring technology for AF detection.
The project focuses on the evaluation of a novel, contactless monitoring technology to measure the blood pulsatile signal based on the video recording of an individual's face. The variability of the pulse rate is computed to identify the presence of atrial fibrillation (AF). We propose to enroll 315 patients with symptomatic AF, paroxysmal or persistent, who go through successful radiofrequency ablation or electrical cardioversion. A computer tablet will be used by the subjects at home during 14 days after their procedure to read emails, browse the internet and watch videos. Facial video recordings will be automatically acquired during these daily activities by the tablet device. The subject will be wearing an ECG patch during the follow-up period. The one-lead continuous ECG will be used as a reference to verify the presence of AF rhythm during facial video recordings. The primary aim of the study is to demonstrate the validity and robustness of the video-based technology to detect the presence of AF when facial videos are acquired by the patients at home.
