Baseline wander removal of ECG signals using Hilbert vibration decomposition

Abstract

A technique to remove baseline wander (BW) from electrocardiogram (ECG) signals based on the Hilbert vibration decomposition (HVD) technique is presented. It is proposed that the first component (highest energy component) obtained using the HVD of the ECG signal corresponds to the BW signal in it. The proposed technique is compared with the baseline removal method based on the empirical mode decomposition technique and mathematical morphology in terms of the correlation criterion and signal-to-noise ratio. The simulations were performed using artificial BWs of different amplitudes added in the ECG recordings and it is seen that the proposed technique for BW removal performs better in most of the cases of severe baseline wander distortions.