2016 International Conference on Intelligent Control Power and Instrumentation (ICICPI)
Synthesis of ECG Waveform using Simulink Model
Subhajit Bhowmick
Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering Department
Techno India, Saltlake
Kolkata, India
subhajitsan@yahoo.co.in
Gautam Sarkar
Electrical Engineering Department
Jadavpur University
Kolkata, India
sgautam63@gmail.com
Abstract— Modeling of ECG signal is of much importance as
the outcome of it is needed for compression of ECG waveform for
remote transmission by wireless link, reconstruction of both
normal and abnormal ECG waveform without patient, studying
the performance of cardiovascular system or heart. The present
work proposes a novel method to design a model of heart
according to functions of electrical activity of major parts inside
heart. Each individual major part generates potential wave w.r.t.
time of its own nature due to depolarization and repolarization
processes. The individual potential waves have been modeled
using Fourier analysis method. In this paper modeling P-R
interval wave, QRS interval wave, S-T interval wave and ECG
wave for one cycle using MATLAB Simulink. The proper
utilization of MATLAB functions (PR Segment block, QRS
Segment block, ST Segment block), MATLAB curve fit GUI-
TOOLBOX and MATLAB Simulink tool can lead us to work
with ECG signals for processing . The simulink model major
parts have been realized by interval generator blocks, ramp
function blocks, product blocks, segment generation blocks and
adder thereby generating P-R interval wave, QRS interval wave
and S-T interval wave within different time ranges of one cycle of
ECG wave. The individuals waves as obtained from PR segment
block, QRS segment block, ST segment block are synthesized to
produce a typical composite ECG wave.
Keywords— ECG wave, Fourier method, MATLAB Function,
MATLAB Curve fit GUI-TOOL BOX, MATLAB Simulink.
I. INTRODUCTION
The goal of the present article to develop the synthesis of
ECG model using MATLAB simulink tool box in frequency
domain analysis with the help of 4th order Fourier analysis
method [1-3]. The biopotential interval waveforms (P-R
interval waveform, QRS interval waveform, S-T interval
waveform) arising from different parts (SA node, AV node,
Bundle of HIS, Fascicle) of the heart are modeled by Fourier
spectrum analysis. We are implemented this model in
MATLAB Simulink tool box and the outputs of all segment
blocks (PR segment block, QRS segment block, ST segment
block) are superimposed to produce composite waveforms at
978-1-5090-2638-8/16/$31.00©2016 IEEE 61
Palash Kumar Kundu
Electrical Engineering Department
Jadavpur University
Kolkata, India
palashm.kushi@gmail.com
different time slots in complete ECG wave cycle [4-9]. The
major objective of the present work can be significantly
justified for development of standalone ECG simulator using
equivalents circuits and other associated parts using electronic
components. The use of a simulink model of heart has many
advantages in the simulation of P-R interval, QRS interval, S-
T interval and synthesis of ECG waveform for one cycle. The
simulink model of heart is saving of time and it is removing
the difficulties of taking real ECG signals with invasive and
noninvasive methods. The simulink model of ECG enables us
to analyze and study normal and abnormal ECG waveforms
without actually using the ECG machine. The simulink model
of ECG waveform for healthy and abnormal patient can also
be used for calibration check operation of ECG recorder.
II. METHODOLOGY
The electrical impulse is initiated at sinoatrial (SA) node
of human heart, this node spontaneously polarize (depolarize
and repolarize) at a rate of 72 times/min. The electrical
impulses (Fig. 1(a)) gradually spread over the heart and
produce bioelectric signal ‘ECG wave’[10-15]. As the basis of
the above theory a suitable model is planned to be designed
so that it is equivalent of human heart and the output of this
model gives the total ECG wave(Fig. 1(b)). Generally this
model have four modules:
A. 1st module of the model is to generate the output of ‘PR
Interval’ (That means P wave and PR segment) (Fig.
1(a)).
B. 2nd module of the model is to generate the output of
‘QRS Interval’ (Fig. 1(a)).
C. 3rd module of the model is to generate for giving the
output of ‘ST Interval’ (That means ST segment and T
wave) (Fig. 1(a)).
D. The last module of the model are adding the output wave
form of the rest of the three modules and finally the last
module is likely to produce total ‘ECG’ wave (Fig.1(b)).
 2016 International Conference on Intelligent Control Power and Instrumentation (ICICPI)

T
2
T 0
Bn = c(t ) cos(nω 0 t )dt (3)

Assuming An = C n cosθ n and Bn = C n sin θ n , the above

equation (1) may be written as
n
x(t ) = C 0 +  C n sin( nω 0 t + θ n ) (4)
n =1
1
2 2 2
Where C n = [ A + B ] n n (5)
 Bn 
θ n = tan −1   (6)
 An 
III. MODELING FOR SYNTHESIS OF ECG WAVE
A typical single lead ECG data of healthy patient was
used from PTB Diagnostic ECG database (ptbdb) under
Fig. 1(a) Electrical activity of heart
Physionet with sampling frequency of 1 kHz [16]. The
proposed modeling approach extracted a single beat from time
aligned multivariate time series data using a single ECG lead.
The beat was fragmented in three sections. The beat boundary
was considered from one TP segment to the following one.
The sampled data sets of P-R, QRS and S-T waves are thus
collected and are processed using MATLAB “CURVE
FITTING GUI-TOOL BOX”. Selecting Fourier type model
under function fitting the coefficients An, Bn, C0 , Cn, ϴn are
determined . The values of C0, Cn, ϴn are tabulated in TABLE-
I. It has been found that using 4-th order Fourier model,
accuracy of model is sufficient large as the maximum error is
below. PR, QRS and ST intervals have been generated by
pulse generator blocks in Simulink model (Fig.2(a)). The PR,
QRS and ST segments waveforms are generated separately by
three different MATLAB functions based on 4th order Fourier
model as:
n
Fig. 1(b) Timing Diagram of waveforms of ECG synthesis x(t ) = C 0 +  C n sin( nω 0 t + θ n )
n =1
The P-R interval, QRS interval and S-T interval waves are
for n=1 to 4.
decomposed using Fourier analysis method. Assuming x(t)
being the representative of P-R interval, QRS interval and S-T 1
interval waveforms respectively, The frequency domain
representation of all interval waves can be expressed by: C n = [ An2 + Bn2 ] 2
n TABLE-I
x(t ) = C0 +  An sin( nω0t ) + Bn cos(nω0t ) (1)
n =1
Interval
Where x(t) = The instantaneous value of “P-R”/ “QRS”/ “S- time C0 ω0 (rad/sec.) n Cn θ n (rad.)
T” interval potential. C0 = Average value of “P-R”/ “QRS”/ (ms)
1 0.0728 0.6169
2π
P-R wave

2 0.0013 -0.6243
“S-T” interval potential signal. ω0 = [ ω0 is angular 150 0.1930 50.8400 3 0.0069 -1.4121
T
frequency of fundamental component]. T is the time period of 4 0.0042 -0.6543
“P-R”/ “QRS”/ “S-T” interval potential wave. 1 0.3937 -1.1860
QRS wave

T
2 2 0.1894 1.0774

T 0
An = c(t ) sin( nω 0 t )dt (2) 190 0.3330 27.5600
3 0.0474 -0.7251
4 0.0098 -0.6329

62
 2016 International Conference on Intelligent Control Power and Instrumentation (ICICPI)

1 0.1096 0.6802
S-T wave

2 0.0032 1.3930
220 0.2239 32.3000
3 0.0086 -1.0926
4 0.0054 -0.4381

Based on the functional model of ECG waveform synthesis,

Matlab–Simulink model is designed (Fig:-2(a)), which include
PR,QRS and ST interval generator blocks, MATLAB function
blocks for generation of PR,QRS and ST segment waveforms
according to 4-th order Fourier model (equation-1), Adder
block and scope block. The PR, QRS and ST segments
waveforms are generated by Simulink model (Fig:-2(b)),
which are superimposed to produce one cycle of ECG
waveform ( Fig:-2(c)). Fig. 2(c) Reconstructed ECG waveform obtained from Simulink Model

IV. RESULTS
The original and reconstructed waveforms with residue or
error over different segments (e.g. P-R, QRS and S-T are
shown in fig:-3). The performance of the quality of
reconstructed ECG waveform by synthesis are expressed by
mathematical indices as i) Percentage root mean squared
difference (PRD), ii) Normalized PRD (PRDN), iii) Maximum
absolute error (Emax) and iv) Root mean square error (RMSE)
and Signal to noise ratio (SNR). They are defined as :

 ( x[n] − xˆ[n])
n =1
2

PRD = 100 × N

 ( x[n])
n =1
2

Fig. 2(a) Simulink Model

N

 ( x[n] − xˆ[n])
n =1
2

PRDN = 100 × N

 ( x[n] − x )
n =1
2

E max = max(x[n] − xˆ[n])

 ( x[n] − xˆ[n])
n =1
2

RMSE =
N
where N = total number of samples in waveform dataset
x[n]
=actual value of sample nth
xˆ[n]
= Corresponding reconstructed value of n-th sample.

Fig. 2(b) PR, QRS and ST segment waveforms

63
 2016 International Conference on Intelligent Control Power and Instrumentation (ICICPI)
1
Actual ecg waveform
0.8
0.6
A m plitude
Reconstructed ecg waaveform
0.4
0.2
Error
0 [6]
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Time(S)
Fig. 3 Comparison between actual and reconstructed one cycle ECG
waveform
In present case, the performance indices are found to be
(Fig.3):
PRDN =3.5282, PRD =1.8237, RMSE =0.0353, Emax
=0.1817
V. DISCUSSION
In the present investigation, pulse interval generators (PR,
QRS, ST interval) and PR segment, QRS segment, ST
segment are designed using “MATLAB-SIMULINK”
platform/toolbox. The partial ECG waves are obtained after 4th
order Fourier modeling using “MATLAB curvefit GUI-
TOOLBOX”. The original and reconstructed waveforms with
residue are generated by MATLAB programme. The
performance of designed electronic circuit could be simulated
as future work, using ORCAD/Pspice circuit simulator tool.
The partial ECG waves (e.g. Waves corresponding to P-R
interval, QRS interval and S-T interval) are generated by 4th
order harmonic oscillator circuits. Increasing the order greater
than 4 will definitely increase the accuracy but the no. of
oscillators will increase and thereby increasing the
complexity. Moreover here it has been assumed that the
orders, the Fourier model of all partial ECG waves are fixed to
four. The realization of equivalent circuits for unequal order
would be necessary in that case. As a on of the future scope,
we can follow the above methods, mathematically model
arrhythmia, myocardial infarctions and other cardiac problems
and help detecting them in the humans by comparison.
Another future task, the partial waveform generation with
different time intervals could be easily implemented using
embedded hardware consisting of microcontroller, high
resolution DAC and intelligent software.
References
[1] S. C. Bera, R. Sarkar, “Fourier Analysis of Normal ECG Signal to Find
it Maximum Harmonic Content by Signal Reconstruction”, Journal of
Sensors and Transducers, Vol. 123, Issue. 12, December 2010, pp. 106-
107.
[2] S.C.Bera, R.Sarkar and Nirupama Mondal “A Review Work on
Reconstruction of ECG Wave from Fourier Harmonic Components”,
Paper No: 400, 2008 IEEE Region 10 Colloquium and Third ICIIS,
Kharagpur, India.
[3] Al-Nashash, H.A.M. "A dynamic Fourier series for the compression of
ECG using FFT and adaptive coefficient estimation", Med. Eng. Physics
17, pp.197–203, 1995.
[4] M. K. Islam, A. N. M. M. Haque, G. Tangim, T. Ahammad, and M. R.
H. Khondokar, “Study and Analysis of ECG Signal Using MATLAB &
LABVIEW as Effective Tools ”, International Journal of Computer and
Electrical Engineering , Vol. 4, No. 3, June 2012 , Page-404.
[5] T. Lukáč, O. Ondráček , “USING SIMULINK AND MATLAB FOR
REAL-TIME ECG SIGNAL PROCESSING ”.
Martin Fetz , Diploma Thesis at the Department of Computer Science
0.7 iTec - Information and Communication , “Engineering Creation of a
Simulation Environment in Simulink/Matlab for the Analysis and
Optimization of the Spectral Algorithm for the Detection of Ventricular
Fibrillation”, Dornbirn, August 2004.
[7] Trung Q. Le, Satish T.S. Bukkapatnam, Akkarapol Sangasoongsong,
Ranga Komanduri, “Towards Virtual Instruments for Cardiovascular
Healthcare: Realtime Modeling of Cardiovascular Dynamics Using ECG
Signals” , 6th annual IEEE Conference on Automation Science and
Engineering, Ontario, Canada, pp.903–910, August 21-24, 2010.
[8] Fikret YALCINKAYA, Ertem KIZILKAPLAN,Ali ERBAS,
“Mathematical Modelling of Human Heart as a Hydroelectromechanical
System”, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,
Kirikkale University, 71450, Yahsihan, Kirikkale, Turkey, pp. 362-366.
[9] K. Hassani, M Navidbakhsh, M Rostami, “Simulation of the
cardiovascular system using equivalent electronic system”, Biomed Pap
Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub.2006, 150(1):105-112.
[10] L. A. Geddes and L. E. Baker, Principles of Applied Biomedical
Instrumentation, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., N. Y., 1968.
[11] L. Cromwell, F. J. Weibel, E. A. Pfeiffer, Biomedical Instrumentation
and Measurements, PHI Pvt. Ltd, 1996.
[12] Khandpur R S – Handbook of Biomedical Instrumentation, TMH, N.
Delhi 1991
[13] Carr – Introduction to Biomedical Equipment Technology 4/e – Pearson.
[14] Katz A M. Physiology of the heart. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott
Williams & Wilkins; 2011.
[15] R.Gupta, M.Mitra, J.Bera, “ECG Acquisition and Automated Remote
Processing”, Springer, 2014.
[16] http://www.physionet.org.
64