Semi-Automated Optical Heartbeat Analysis

About SOHA

SOHA was originally written as a MatLab-based application and its implementation was published in Ocorr et al., 2007. The original program resulted from a collaboration between researchers at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute and the University of California – San Diego.

A more detailed demonstration of its application to fruit flies and to other model systems with small hearts was presented in Fink et al, 2009 and Ocorr et al, 2009.

SOHA has subsequently been rewritten in collaboration with Oaktree Technologies as a stand-alone program. The current version has additional sensitivity, higher throughput and additional functionality (Cammarato et al., 2014).

Technical Specifications

Operating System

SOHA currently works only in the Windows environment and is compatible with Windows XP, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

Input Files

  • Uncompressed, Black & White *.avi format movies (timing information is based on average frame rate for each movie)
  • *.cxd files generated by HCImage, image capture software from Hamamatsu* (timing information is based on the time stamp associated with each movie frame)

Output Files

Output is a comma separated value or *.csv file that is compatible with most spreadsheet type programs.

Output Parameters

  • Heart Rate (1/Heart Period)
  • Heart Period (Diastolic plus subsequent systolic intervals)
  • Diastolic Interval
  • Systolic Interval
  • Arrhythmia Index (Standard Deviation/Median Heart Period)
  • Diastolic Diameters
  • Systolic Diameters
  • Fractional Shortening [(Diastolic – systolic diameters)/diastolic diameter]
  • Contraction Phase Interval
  • Relaxation Phase Interval
  • Maximum Velocity Interval
  • Shortening Velocity

Learn More about SOHA Features »

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