Analysis of Indications for Electrotherapy Using Classification Trees

Abstract

Electrotherapy is a dynamically developing method of treatment of sinus node dysfunction and atrioventricular conduction disturbances. It is an extremely important method used in the treatment of heart failure. The aim of this paper was to use classification trees for the differentiation between patients implanted with one of the three electrotherapy devices, i.e. SC-VVI/AAI, DC-DDD, ICD/CRT. The analysed data concerned 2071 patients who underwent implantation or device replacement procedures in the years 2010–2018, hospitalized in a coronary care unit. CART-type classification trees with 5-fold cross-validation were used for the analysis. The decision concerning the choice of a particular electrotherapy device is always made based on the latest guidelines and the patient’s clinical condition. The used classification trees may enable verification of the state of implementation of guidelines in real-life therapeutic decisions.