AN EFFICIENT SIGNAL PROCESSING ALGORITHM FOR

ACCURATE DETECTION OF CHARACTERISTIC POINTS IN

ABNORMAL ECG SIGNALS

ABSTRACT
A lot of information on the normal and pathological physiology of heart can be obtained in
the form of ECG. The irregularity of heart resembles the shape of ECG. One cardiac cycle of ECG
signal consists of characteristic points P-QRS-T. The amplitudes and intervals values of P-QRS-T
segment determine the functioning of heart of every human. If the electrical activity of the heart is
irregular, faster, or slower than normal this is considered as abnormality in ECG signals. In this
paper a Signal processing algorithm, which is the combination of both Frequency and Time
analysis is used to identify P-QRS-T points. R-peak detection is the first step in characteristic
points detection, for identifying R-peak, wavelet transform (sym4) decomposition method
(Frequency domain) is used. After R-peak detection other characteristic points are detected by
tracing to and fro from R-peak (Time domain). In this five cases of ECG signals are tested
specifically for a Normal Person; Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR), Atrial fibrillation (AF), Right
Bundle Branch Block (RBBB), Left Bundle Branch Block (LBBB), Cardiac Ischemia (CI) and
Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) . A total of 73 Abnormal ECG signals are taken from MIT-BIH
arrhythmias database and Results are evaluated using MATLAB R2014a software.

EXISTING METHOD:

Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is a diagnostic tool that measures and records the
electrical activity of the heart in exquisite detail. It is a nearly periodic signal that reflects the
activity of the heart. A lot of information on the normal and pathological physiology of heart can
be obtained from ECG. However, the ECG signals being non-stationary in nature, it is very
difficult to visually analyze them.. This calls for computer-based techniques for ECG analysis.
At every beat, the heart is depolarized to trigger its contraction. This electrical activity is
transmitted throughout the body and can be picked up on the skin which is the principle behind
the ECG .

PROPOSED METHOD:

ECG analysis. At every beat, the heart is depolarized to trigger its contraction. This electrical
activity is transmitted throughout the body and can be picked up on the skin which is the principle
behind the ECG [ R-peak detection is the primary step in ECG characteristic points detection, by
taking R-peak as reference, the other characteristic waves was identified by window analysis. Pan
Tompkins algorithm is also used to detect ECG characteristic waves. In this methodology
frequency domain analysis (wavelet transform) is used for detection of R-peak and followed by
Time domain analysis is used for detection of other characteristic waves.

A. Steps wise methodology of proposed Signal Processing Algorithm

Step 1: Load the ECG records from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database .

Step 2: Remove the different type of noises in ECG frequency range (Baseline drift noise, power
line Interference, EMG noise) using cascaded based digital filters

Step 3: For finding R-peak decompose the signal using Wavelet (sym4) at particular scale.

Step 4: After decomposition identify R-peak in ECG signal keeping 60% of the signal value as
threshold.

Step 5: Reconstruction of ECG signal from decomposed signal find R-peak and R-location
(Rloc).

Step 6: For finding Q-point by finding lowest value in the window range Rloc-X1 to Rloc-Y1
Where X1= 50*ts Y1= 10*ts (ts= sampling time) ts= 1/fs (fs= sampling frequency)

Step 7: For identifying S-point create a window on the right side of R-peak in time domain in the
range of Rloc+X2 to Rloc+Y2 Where X1= 5*ts Y1= 50*ts,ts= 1/fs (fs= sampling frequency)

Step 8: Detect T-point by finding highest value in the window range.Rloc+X3 to Rloc+Y3
Where X3= 25*ts Y3= 100*ts, ts= 1/fs (fs= sampling frequency)

Step 9: Detect P-Point by finding maximum value in window range.Rloc-X4 to Rloc-Y4

Where X4= 50*ts Y1= 100*ts, ts= 1/fs (fs= sampling frequency)
Step 10: In case of inverted T wave, first check if the T peak detected is greater or smaller than
the P- peak. In normal cases T peak has greater amplitude by larger margin in comparison to P
peak. If the reverse is true for the signal. then find the lowest value within the window that is
defined for the T peak earlier in step 8.