Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40703115›Full record

ArticleEuropean heart journal. Digital health2025

Synthetic electrocardiograms for Brugada syndrome: from data generation to expert cardiologists evaluation.

Beatrice Zanchi, Giuliana Monachino, Francesca Dalia Faraci, Matteo Metaldi, Pedro Brugada, Georgia Sarquella-Brugada, Elijah R Behr, Josep Brugada, Lia Crotti, Bernard Belhassen and 1 more

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in European heart journal. Digital health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors.

Beatrice ZanchiDepartment of Innovative Technologies, Institute of Digital Technologies for Personalized Healthcare of SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0009-3017-0645
Giuliana MonachinoDepartment of Innovative Technologies, Institute of Digital Technologies for Personalized Healthcare of SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4434-6399
Francesca Dalia FaraciDepartment of Innovative Technologies, Institute of Digital Technologies for Personalized Healthcare of SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8720-1256
Matteo MetaldiDepartment of Innovative Technologies, Institute of Digital Technologies for Personalized Healthcare of SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8615-8630
Pedro BrugadaHeart Rhythm Management Centre, Postgraduate Program in Cardiac Electrophysiology and Pacing, Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel-Vrije Universiteit Brussel, European Reference Networks Guard-Heart, Brussels, Belgium.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3172-6106
Georgia Sarquella-BrugadaDepartament de Ciencies Mediques, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6857-8904
Elijah R BehrCardiovascular and Genomics Research Institute, City St George's, University of London and Cardiovascular Clinical Academic Group, St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8731-2853
Josep BrugadaCardiology Department, Arrhythmia Section, Hospital Clinic, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5662-8302
Lia CrottiCenter for Cardiac Arrhythmias of Genetic Origin and Laboratory of Cardiovascular Genetics, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, IRCCS, Milan, Italy.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8739-6527
Bernard BelhassenHadassah Medical Center, Heart Institute, Kyriat Hadassah, Jerusalem, Israel.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7468-2054
Giulio ConteDivision of Cardiology, Cardiocentro Ticino Institute, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Via Tesserete 48, Lugano CH-6900, Switzerland.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2248-3456

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Aims: Synthetic electrocardiograms (ECGs) for inherited cardiac diseases may overcome the issue related to data scarcity for artificial intelligence (AI)-based algorithms. This study aimed to evaluate experienced cardiologists' ability to differentiate synthetic and real Brugada ECGs. Methods and results: A total of 2244 ECG instances (50% synthetic generated by a generative adversarial network, 50% real Brugada patients' ECGs) were evaluated by 7 cardiologists, each with >15 years of experience. All ECGs were standard 12-lead recordings acquired with identical settings (paper speed 25 mm/s, amplitude 10 mm/mV) and randomly assigned without identifying markers. The examination was blinded and conducted in 2 rounds with at least 2 h gap between rounds to assess potential learning effects and intra-rater reliability. Each physician classified the recordings as 'real' or 'synthetic' without having any additional information. Performance metrics, including accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and intra-rater reliability (Cohen's Kappa), were analyzed. Brugada syndrome (BrS) specialists' repeated evaluations were characterized by low accuracy (first round 40%, second round 42%), specificity (first round 22%, second round 26%) and sensitivity (first round 58%, second round 58%). Intra-rater reliability varied widely (Cohen's Kappa: -0.12 to 0.80). Conclusion: Synthetic Brugada ECGs cannot be adequately distinguished from real patients' ECGs by BrS specialists.

Indexed as

AI-enabled ECGArtificial IntelligenceBrugada SyndromeCardiogeneticsMachine learningSynthetic ECG

Identifiers

PMID40703115
PMCPMC12282356

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.