Labeling and definition of events to be detected
COPD, decompensation
COPD
Given that the main objective of this study was the detection of a transition from a state considered normal or stable (HF or COPD in the compensated phase [V2, V3]) to a state of decompensation or exacerbation (decompensated phase [V1]), a methodological scheme was applied based on calculation of the differences between the evaluations of each available characteristic. Thus, if a patient had three evaluations (V1, V2 and V3), six differences or useful comparative signals were obtained from these evaluations (V1–V2, V1–V3, V2–V1, V2–V3, V3–V1, V3–V2). The label of each of these comparative signals is illustrated in Fig. Labeling and interpretation of comparative signals.Although the differences V1–V2 and V1–V3 might be more appropriately considered “decompensation recovery” rather than “no decompensation”, we decided to discard a third label category (“decompensation recovery”) due to the small sample size and because the main objective of the trial was the detection of decompensation.