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Electrocardiogram Signal Analysis - An Overview

Article  in  International Journal of Computer Applications · December 2013

DOI: 10.5120/14590-2826

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 84 – No 7, December 2013

Electrocardiogram Signal Analysis - An Overview

Rajni Inderbir Kaur
Associate Professor Research Scholar
SBSSTC, Ferozepur, Punjab SBSSTC, Ferozepur, Punjab

ABSTRACT that helps to find whether the parts of the heart are too large or
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the transthoracic interpretation of overworked. The frequency range of an ECG signal is 0.05–
the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time. 100 Hz and its dynamic range is 1–10 mV. The ECG signal is
Analysis of ECG signal provides information regarding the characterized by five peaks and valleys represented by the
condition of heart. Various methods like Fast Fourier letters P, Q, R, S, T. Sometimes U wave is also present. The
Transforms, Wavelet Transform, etc. have been used for performance of ECG analysis is based on the accurate and
detection of cardiac diseases In this paper we have given a reliable detection of the QRS complex as well as T- and P
review on the work done in area of ECG signal analysis in waves [4] [5]. An ideal ECG wave is as shown in Figure 2:
past few years.

General Terms
Electrocardiogram, Heart

Keywords
Electrocardiogram(ECG), Wavelet Transforms

1. INTRODUCTION
Electrocardiogram is the electrical activity of the heart. It is a
graphical demonstration of the variation of biopotential versus
time [1]. The leads are placed on specific locations of the
body of the person to record ECG either on graph paper or on
monitors. The human heart contains four chambers i.e., Right
Atrium, Left Atrium, Right Ventricle and Left Ventricle. The
upper chambers are the two Atria’s and the lower chambers
are the two Ventricles. Under healthy condition the heartbeat Figure2. A typical Cardiac Waveform [4]
begins at the Right Atrium called Sino Atria (SA) node and a
special group of cells send these electrical signals across the The P-wave represent the activation of the two atria, the upper
heart. This signal travels from the Atria to the Atrio chambers of the heart, while the QRS complex and T-wave
Ventricular (AV) node. The AV node connects to a group of represent the excitation of the lower chamber of the heart, the
fibers in Ventricles that conducts the electrical signal and ventricles. QRS detection is one of the fundamental issues in
transmits the impulse to all parts of the lower chamber, the automatic ECG signal analysis. After QRS complex has been
Ventricles. To ensure that the heart is functioning properly detected a thorough examination of ECG signal is done. The
this path of propagation must be traced accurately [2].The P, QRS and T-waves reflect the rhythmic electrical
basic structure of heart is depicted in Figure.1: depolarization and repolarization of the myocardium linked
with the contractions of the atria and ventricles [6]. The
horizontal section of this waveform prior to the P-wave is
termed as the baseline or the isopotential line. The P-wave
corresponds to the depolarization of the atrial musculature.
The QRS complex gives the combined result of the
repolarization of the atria and depolarization of the ventricles,
which occurs almost at same time. The T-wave is the wave of
ventricular repolarization, where as the U-wave, if present is
normally believed to be the result of after potentials in the
ventricular muscle. So the duration amplitude and
morphology of the QRS complex is helpful in diagnosing
cardiac arrhythmias, conduction abnormalities, ventricular
hypertrophy, myocardial infection and other disease states.
The usual rate of heart is 60 to 100 beats per minute. A slower
rate than the normal range is called bradycardia (slow heart)
Figure 1. Schematic anatomy of the human heart [3]
and a higher rate is called tachycardia (fast heart). If the ECG
signal is not normal then an Arrhythmia is indicated [6] [7].
2. ECG WAVEFORM The waveform of normal ECG waveform and that of the
Each heart beat displayed is a sequence of electrical waves abnormalities is shown in Figures 3, 4 and 5:
characterized by peaks and valleys. ECG mainly provides two
kinds of information. One is the duration of the electrical
wave passing through the heart and it will decide whether the
electrical activity is normal or slow or irregular. Second is the
amount of electrical activity passing through the heart muscle

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 84 – No 7, December 2013

Dextrocardia Inverted P-wave

Hyperkalemia Tall T-wave and absence of P-

wave

Sudden cardiac Irregular ECG

death

Sinoatrial block Complete drop out of a cardiac

cycle

Myocardial ischemia Inverted T-wave

Figure3. Normal sinus rhythm [6]

3. METHODS
ECG signal analysis and detection has been an interesting
topic from many years and still research is going on in this
field. Various methods have been developed for ECG analysis
as Fast Fourier transform, Short time Fourier transform, etc.

3.1 Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

Earlier the method used for ECG signal analysis was time
domain method. But the limitation was that it was not
sufficient to study all characteristics of ECG signal [6] [9]. So
a new method FFT was developed. Fourier transform is a well
known method which transforms time domain signal to
frequency domain to obtain the frequency coefficients [10].
FFT is an elementary transform in digital signal processing
and has various applications in frequency analysis, signal
Figure 4. Sinus Bradycardia [6] processing etc [11]. It is a fast and more capable algorithm to
work out the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and obtains
the same effect [12]. FFT is defined by the formula shown in
equation (1):

…… (1)

Where k is an integer ranging from 0 to N-1[13]. ECG

signals can be compressed by using variety of techniques. One
of the most important techniques is FFT. The total process
consists of the following steps:

 Obtaining an ECG sample or input signal.

 Compressing the input signal by removing the low

frequency components.

 Recovery of the original signal by using inverse

Figure 5. Sinus Tachycardia [6] FFT [14]

But the disadvantage of FFT is that it failed to provide the

Various characteristic of the patterns of ECG wave are listed information regarding the accurate location of frequency
and the related disease to each pattern is also given [8]: components in time [1].

Table 1. Abnormalities 3.2 Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT)

To overcome this shortcoming of FFT, Dennis Gabor in 1946,
ABNORMALITY CHARACTERISTICS first introduced the windowed-Fourier transform, i.e. Short-
Time Fourier Transform known later as Gabor transform [15].
Bradycardia R-R interval>1s STFT has both time and frequency information [10]. It is used
to determine the sinusoidal frequency and phase content of the
Tachycardia R-R interval<0.6s signal as it varies with time. The STFT based spectrogram is a
simple and fast technique in comparison to other time–
Hypercalcaemia QRS interval<0.1s frequency analysis. It is an easy approach of slicing the
waveform of interest into a number of short-segments. Then it
analyzes each segment using standard Fourier transform. A

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 International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 84 – No 7, December 2013

window function is applied to a segment of data, efficiently of the high frequency features. Another important difference
isolating that segment from the overall waveform, and Fourier from the STFT is that the CWT is not restricted to use
transform is applied to that segment. This is known as the sinusoidal analyzing functions. Rather, localized waveforms
spectrogram or Short-Time Fourier Transform. For a signal x can be selected as long as they satisfy the predefined
(t), the definition of STFT is given by equation (2): mathematical criteria [20].

…… (2) The CWT of a signal x (t) is defined as:

Where w (t) is a window, having duration T, centered at ….(3)

time location t, the Fourier transform of the windowed signal h (t) is called mother wavelet, a is the scaling parameter in y-
x (t) w (t - τ) is the STFT [16]. But the limitation of STFT is axis and b is the shift parameter in x-axis [2].
that its time frequency precision is not optimal. Hence a more
suitable technique is opted to overcome this drawback. 3.3.2 Discrete Wavelet Transform
The DWT is defined as:
3.3 Wavelet Transform
In STFT window should always have a fixed size and thus it ……. (4)
does not give multi resolution information of the signal. But Where Ψ (t) is a time function with finite energy and fast
Wavelet Transform has the multiresolution property which decay called the mother wavelet [1].
gives both time and frequency information through variable
window size [17]. 4. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
It is expressed by following equations:
In 1982 Jean Morlet a French geophysicist, introduced the
concept of a `Wavelet'. The Wavelet means a small wave and Sensitivity (Se) = TP/ (TP+FN) …... (5)
the study of Wavelet Transform is a new tool for seismic
signal analysis. Without delay, Alex Grossmann theoretical Positive predictivity (P+) =TP/ (TP+FP) ……. (6)
physicists studied the inverse formula for the wavelet
transform [15]. A Wavelet is a small wave which has energy TP=True Positive, FN=False Negative, FP=False Positive
concentrated in time and provides a tool for the analysis of
transient, nonstationary or time-varying signals [18].
5. CONCLUSION
There are various Wavelets available to be used in large This paper gives a review on various techniques used to detect
variety of applications. Wavelet families include abnormalities in ECG signal. Wavelet Transform is the
Biorthogonal, Haar, Coiflet, Symlet, Daubechies Wavelets, flexible tool which can be used for signal analysis. In future
etc. Some features which make them useful are: more research could be done on Wavelet Transform to be
applied to ECG.
 Wavelets are localized in both time and frequency.
6. REFERENCES
[1] Apoorv Gautam and Maninder Kaur, “ECG Analysis
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