A Classification System to Detect Congestive Heart Failure Using Second-Order Difference Plot of RR Intervals

A classification system to detect congestive heart failure (CHF) patients from normal (N) patients is described. The classification procedure uses the k-nearest neighbor algorithm and uses features from the second-order difference plot (SODP) obtained from Holter monitor cardiac RR intervals. The classification system which employs a statistical procedure to obtain the final result gave a success rate of 100% to distinguish CHF patients from normal patients. For this study the Holter monitor data of 36 normal and 36 CHF patients were used. The classification system using standard deviation of RR intervals also performed well, although it did not match the 100% success rate using the features from SODP. However, the success rate for classification using this procedure for SDRR was many fold higher compared to using a threshold. The classification system in this paper will be a valuable asset to the clinician, in the detection congestive heart failure.