Multivariate Classification of Brugada Syndrome Patients Based on the Autonomic Response During Sleep, Exercise and Head-up Tilt Testing

Abstract

Several autonomic markers were estimated overnight and during exercise and head-up tilt (HUT) testing for 44 BS patients, to design classifiers capable of distinguishing patients at different levels of risk. The classification performance of predictive models built from the optimization of a step-based machine-learning method were compared, so as to identify those autonomic protocols and markers best distinguishing between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Although exercise and HUT testing together led to better predictive results than when they were separately assessed, among all analyzed combinations, the night-based classifier presented the best performance (AUC = 95%), using the least amount of features. This optimal features subset was mostly composed of markers extracted between 4 a.m. - 5 a.m. Thus, results provide further evidence for the role of nighttime analysis, mainly during the last hours of sleep, for risk stratification in BS.