Are dual-channel methods as accurate as multi-channel methods to suppress the CPR artifact?

A reliable diagnosis by automated external defibrillators (AED) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would reduce hands-off time, thus increasing the resuscitation success. Several filters based on one (dual-channel) or multiple (multi-channel) reference signals have been proposed to remove the artifact induced on the ECG by chest compressions. However these filters were optimized and their performance evaluated using different ECG data and AED algorithms. In this study, we have re-optimized and evaluated the performance of two dual-channel filters using the same ECG data and AED algorithm used to develop and test a well known multi-channel filter. The accuracy of the tested multi-channel and dual-channel filters was similar. Dual-channel filters need fewer reference channels and a lower computational burden and can be more easily incorporated to current AED.