Raw Electrocardiogram Signal Research Articles

Analysis of Cardiovascular Disease Classification Through Deep Learning Approach

Multiple cardiovascular disease classification from Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is necessary for efficient and fast remedial treatment of the patient. This paper presents a method to classify multiple heart diseases using one dimensional deep convolutional neural network (CNN) where a modified ECG signal is given as an input signal to the network. Each ECG signal is first decomposed through Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and higher order Intrinsic Mode Functions (IMFs) is combined to form a modified ECG signal. It is believed that the use of EMD would provide a broader range of information and can provide denoising performance. This processed signal is fed into the CNN architecture that classifies the record according to cardiovascular diseases using soft max regress or at the end of the network. It is observed that the CNN architecture learns the inherent features of the modified ECG signal better in comparison with the raw ECG signal. The method is applied on three publicly available ECG databases and it is found to be superior to other approaches in terms of classification accuracy. In MIT-BIH, St. Petersburg, PTB databases the proposed method achieves maximum accuracy of 0.9770, 0.9971 and 0.9871 respectively.

Detection of congestive heart failure based on Gramian angular field and two-dimensional symbolic phase permutation entropy

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a serious threat to human health. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals have been proven to be useful in the detection of CHF. However, the low amplitude and short duration of the ECG signals, as well as the superimposed noise during the real-time acquisition of the signal, seriously affect the CHF detection. To improve the detection rate of CHF, this paper proposes a congestive heart failure detection method based on Gramian angular field (GAF) and two-dimensional symbolic phase permutation entropy (SPPE2D). The significant advantage of this method is that it reduces the sensitivity to noise, and good performance can be obtained without denoising using raw ECG signals. We segment the original ECG signals into 2 s non-overlapping segments and convert them into images using the GAF method. Then, the SPPE2D algorithm is proposed to measure the complexity between normal sinus rhythm (NSR) and CHF, and analyze the anti-noise performance of the algorithm. Finally, the SPPE2D features of GAF images are computed and input into a support vector machine (SVM) for CHF detection. Classification accuracy on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology − Beth Israel Hospital Normal Sinus Rhythm Database and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Congestive Heart Failure Database is 99.59%, sensitivity is 99.42%, specificity is 99.80%, and F1-score is 99.62%. The accuracy of detecting CHF reach more than 97.75% in the other five CHF databases. The experimental results show that the method based on GAF and SPPE2D can effectively detect CHF by images of ECG signals and has good robustness. CHF can be detected using the 2 s sample lengths of ECG signals recording with high sensitivity, giving clinicians ample time to treat patients with CHF.

Improved multi-layer wavelet transform and blind source separation based ECG artifacts removal algorithm from the sEMG signal: in the case of upper limbs.

Introduction: Surface electromyogram (sEMG) signals have been widely used in human upper limb force estimation and motion intention recognition. However, the electrocardiogram(ECG) artifact generated by the beating of the heart is a major factor that reduces the quality of the EMG signal when recording the sEMG signal from the muscle close to the heart. sEMG signals contaminated by ECG artifacts are difficult to be understood correctly. The objective of this paper is to effectively remove ECG artifacts from sEMG signals by a novel method. Methods: In this paper, sEMG and ECG signals of the biceps brachii, brachialis, and triceps muscle of the human upper limb will be collected respectively. Firstly, an improved multi-layer wavelet transform algorithm is used to preprocess the raw sEMG signal to remove the background noise and power frequency interference in the raw signal. Then, based on the theory of blind source separation analysis, an improved Fast-ICA algorithm was constructed to separate the denoising signals. Finally, an ECG discrimination algorithm was used to find and eliminate ECG signals in sEMG signals. This method consists of the following steps: 1) Acquisition of raw sEMG and ECG signals; 2) Decoupling the raw sEMG signal; 3) Fast-ICA-based signal component separation; 4) ECG artifact recognition and elimination. Results and discussion: The experimental results show that our method has a good effect on removing ECG artifacts from contaminated EMG signals. It can further improve the quality of EMG signals, which is of great significance for improving the accuracy of force estimation and motion intention recognition tasks. Compared with other state-of-the-art methods, our method can also provide the guiding significance for other biological signals.

A multimodal deep learning tool for detection of junctional ectopic tachycardia in children with congenital heart disease

Junctional ectopic tachycardia (JET) is a prevalent life-threatening arrhythmia in children with congenital heart disease. It has a marked resemblance to normal sinus rhythm, often leading to delay in diagnosis and management. The study sought to develop a novel multimodal automated arrhythmia detection tool that outperforms existing JET detection tools. This is a cohort study performed on 40 patients with congenital heart disease at Texas Children's Hospital. Electrocardiogram and central venous pressure waveform data produced by bedside monitors are captured by the Sickbay platform. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) were trained to classify each heartbeat as either normal sinus rhythm or JET based only on raw electrocardiogram signals. Our best model improved the area under the curve from 0.948 to 0.952 and the true positive rate at 5% false positive rate from 71.8% to 80.6%. Using a 3-model ensemble further improved the area under the curve to 0.953 and the true positive rate at 5% false positive rate to 85.2%. Results on a subset of data show that adding central venous pressure can significantly improve area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve from 0.646 to 0.825. This study validates the efficacy of deep neural networks to notably improve JET detection accuracy. We have built a performant and reliable model that can be used to create a bedside alarm that diagnoses JET, allowing for precise diagnosis of this life-threatening postoperative arrhythmia and prompt intervention. Future validation of the model in a larger cohort is needed.

Effect of Breathing Room Air Through a Two-Way Non-Rebreathing Valve on HRV in BI and NBI College-Aged Students

Behavioral inhibition (BI) is a temperament associated with increased vulnerability to stress compared to non-behaviorally inhibited (NBI) individuals. Heart-rate variability (HRV) analysis to assess physiological stress has been growing in popularity due to its association with crucial physiological functions, including cardiac activity, autonomic nervous system activity, and physiologic stress. Previous studies in our lab have demonstrated that HRV in female college-age students expressing a BI temperament is significantly lower than in NBI individuals while breathing room air through a two-way non-rebreathing valve. These findings suggested that the parasympathetic nervous system is partially inhibited at rest in BI females; however, it is unknown if the parasympathetic nervous system in these individuals is inhibited prior to or after breathing through a breathing valve. Our current study will address this question by measuring HRV in BI and NBI individuals while breathing room air for 15 minutes without a breathing valve and for 10 minutes with a two-way breathing valve. Raw electrocardiogram signals will be collected throughout the study protocol and will be used to calculate HRV, which will be measured using a BIOPAC data acquisition system during the experiment. BI individuals will be identified through a series of self-reported questionnaires. Our preliminary results indicate that BI individuals have a lower HRV and are stressed throughout the duration of the study. Thank you to Carthage College's Biology and Neuroscience Department for allowing this research project to be conducted. This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2024 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

Enhanced X-wave recognition in ECG signal using max–min thresholds and detection of QRS complex

Due to the advantages of Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals, which are challenging to replicate yet easy to get, ECG-based identification has become a new path in biometric recognition research. These classic feature extraction techniques require Hand-crafted or feature-specific implications. The methods used for selection and integration of features, are time-consuming. The main objective of this study is develop deep learning approach to study the features of ECG data digital characteristics, thus saving a lot of signal pre-processing steps. This research proposed novel technique in X-wave recognition of ECG signal using max-min threshold technique and classification of ECG signal. This signal has been processed for noise removal and normalization. Then this processed signal has been used to recognize X-wave from ECG signal. From recognized X-wave, the ECG signal has been classified using Improved Support Vector Machine (ISVM). The QRS complex has been detected using Stacked Auto-Encoder with Neural Networks (SAENN). The study took raw ECG signals and entropy-based features evaluated from extracted QRS complexes. Exams are based on classifying heart disorders into two, five, and twenty classes. The experimental findings showed that our suggested model attained a high classification accuracy of 97%, precision of 89%, recall of 90%, F-1 score of 88%.

An artificial intelligence-enabled Holter algorithm to identify patients with ventricular tachycardia by analysing their electrocardiogram during sinus rhythm.

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a dangerous cardiac arrhythmia that can lead to sudden cardiac death. Early detection and management of VT is thus of high clinical importance. We hypothesize that it is possible to identify patients with VT during sinus rhythm by leveraging a continuous 24 h Holter electrocardiogram and artificial intelligence. We analysed a retrospective Holter data set from the Rambam Health Care Campus, Haifa, Israel, which included 1773 Holter recordings from 1570 non-VT patients and 52 recordings from 49 VT patients. Morphological and heart rate variability features were engineered from the raw electrocardiogram signal and fed, together with demographical features, to a data-driven model for the task of classifying a patient as either VT or non-VT. The model obtained an area under the receiving operative curve of 0.76 ± 0.07. Feature importance suggested that the proportion of premature ventricular beats and beat-to-beat interval variability was discriminative of VT, while demographic features were not. This original study demonstrates the feasibility of VT identification from sinus rhythm in Holter.

ECG in Real World Scenario: Time Variability in Biometric Using Wearable Smart Textile Shirts

Biomedical signals, such as an electrocardiogram (ECG), have been included in wearable platforms for biometric reasons due to the rapid expansion of apps and technology capable of gathering this physiological data. Most studies using ECG biometrics are conducted in clinical settings, which is impractical for wearable ECG-based biometric applications. Therefore, this study aims to determine the reliability of ECG signals obtained from the commercially available Hexoskin Proshirt and HeartIn Fit shirt, which may be worn for biometric verification in real-world scenarios. ECG data from 22 participants were collected over a span period of more than 30 days. The raw ECG signal is first pre-processed in the time domain using noise-removal Butterworth filters, and then a successful QRS segmented feature extraction method is used. Not to mention, 300 datasets were used to test the recommended recognition method using a Quadratic Support Vector Machine (QSVM). In comparison, around 854 datasets were prepared for training and validation of the classifier. The findings showed that the proposed method provided a considerable accuracy above 99.63 % with a FAR of 0.14 %, an FRR of 2.86 %, and a TPR of 97.14 %. Thus, the study supports using ECG biometrics for verification in real-world settings by employing a smart textile shirt with varying temporal variability.

AI driven ECG arrhythmia diagnosis

The accurate and timely diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmias is crucial for effective patient management and improved health outcomes. However, the precise identification of arrhythmias in electrocardiogram (ECG) data often requires specialized medical expertise, leading to potential delays and errors in diagnosis. To address these challenges, this project introduces an AI-driven system for ECG arrhythmia diagnosis. Employing advanced deep learning techniques, the proposed system leverages a comprehensive dataset of annotated ECG recordings to train a robust model capable of detecting and classifying various types of arrhythmias. The model is designed to process raw ECG signals, extract relevant features, and generate clinically meaningful insights, enabling automated and rapid identification of arrhythmic patterns. Through a user-friendly interface, medical professionals can upload ECG data for real-time analysis, allowing for prompt decision-making and personalized patient care. Furthermore, the system offers interpretable results, highlighting key indicators and providing detailed explanations to aid clinicians in understanding the diagnostic outcomes.

Biometric Analysis on Smart Textile Garment in Real Life Scenario

The rapid proliferation of wearable applications and technologies capable of acquiring biomedical signals has prompted the incorporation of biomedical signals, such as the electrocardiogram (ECG), for biometric purposes in wearable platforms. Most ECG biometric research utilises medical-grade sensors in clinical settings, which is unrealistic for wearable ECG-based biometric applications in the real world. Therefore, this research aims to examine the ECG biometric on smart textile garments in real life, collected from commercially available wearable Hexoskin Proshirt and HeartIn Fit shirts. ECG data were obtained from 22 participants who took part in this study. The raw ECG signal is initially pre-processed using noise-removal Butterworth filters in the time domain, followed by an effective QRS segmented feature extraction technique. Finally, around 2076 datasets were created for training and validation, while the remaining 501 datasets were employed to test the suggested recognition approach with 29 Machine Learning Classifiers. Subsequently, Quadratic SVM has the highest accuracy at 96.8% for ECG biometrics, followed by Narrow Neural Network with 95.8% and Wide Neural Network with 95.4%. Further improvement to the QSVM parameter improved the accuracy to 97.4% with an error rate of 2.6%, followed by a sensitivity of 97.4% with a precision of 97.7% and a false rejection rate of 2.6%. Thus, the results of this study further validate the feasibility of applying ECG biometrics for recognition in real-life scenarios utilising a smart textile shirt with different configurations and brand is possible.

HA-ResNet: Residual Neural Network With Hidden Attention for ECG Arrhythmia Detection Using Two-Dimensional Signal.

Arrhythmia is an abnormal heart rhythm, a common clinical problem in cardiology. Long-term or severe arrhythmia may lead to stroke and sudden cardiac death. The electrocardiogram (ECG) is the most commonly used tool to diagnose arrhythmia. However, the traditional diagnosis relies on experts for manual interpretation, which is time-consuming and laborious. In recent years, many automatic arrhythmia detection methods have emerged due to advancements in deep learning. These methods can reduce manual intervention and improve diagnostic efficiency. However, extracting useful features from raw ECG signals for arrhythmia detection is still challenging due to the low frequency of ECG signals and noise distribution. In this paper, we propose a novel hidden attention residual network (HA-ResNet) for automated arrhythmia classification. In this model, the one-dimensional ECG signals are first converted into two-dimensional images and fed into an embedding layer to obtain the relevant shallow features in ECG. Then, a hidden attention layer combining Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) block and Bidirectional Convolutional LSTM (BConvLSTM) is used to further capture the deep Spatio-temporal features. We evaluate our HA-ResNet on two public datasets and achieve F1 scores of 96.0%, 96.7%, and 87.6% on 2s segments, 5s segments, and 10s segments, respectively, which significantly outperform the existing state-of-the-art approaches. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization of our method.

ECG biometric in real-life settings: analysing different physiological conditions with wearable smart textiles shirts

The adoption of biomedical signals such as the electrocardiogram (ECG) for biometric is rising in tandem with the increased attention to wearable devices. However, despite its potential benefits, ECG is rarely implemented as a biometric mechanism in real-life wearable applications. Therefore, this research aims to analyse the ECG signals extracted from wearable Hexoskin Proshirt for biometric authentication in different physiological conditions. A total of 11 subjects participated in this study, where the ECG signals were recorded while standing, sitting, walking, and uncontrolled activity. The raw ECG signal is first pre-processed using noise-removal butterworth filters in the time domain, followed by an efficient QRS segmented feature extraction approach. Finally, around 854 datasets were generated for training and validation, while the remaining 300 were used to test the proposed recognition method with a quadratic support vector machine (QSVM). The results show that the proposed method achieved a reliable accuracy above 98% with false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0.93%, false rejection rate (FRR) of 3.64%, and true positive rate (TPR) above 96% on the in-house datasets. This researchs findings confirm the possibility of using ECG biometrics for authentication purposes in various real-life settings with varying physiological parameters using a smart textile shirt.

Atrial fibrillation detection with signal decomposition and dilated residual neural network

Objective. Detecting atrial fibrillation (AF) using electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings from wearable devices has been challenging due to factors such as low signal-to-noise ratio and the use of only one lead. The use of deep learning has become a popular approach to tackle this task. However, it has been observed that current methods based on deep neural networks tend to favor raw signals as input, disregarding the valuable clinical experience in ECG diagnosis. Approach. In this study, we proposed a novel feature extraction method that generates a pseudo QRS complex signal and a pseudo T, P wave signal for each raw ECG signal using a temporal mask built upon R peak detection. Then a novel dilated residual neural network was trained on the decomposed signal. Main results. We evaluated the performance of our method on the dataset of PhysioNet/CinC 2017 Challenge, achieving an average score of 0.843. The method was further tested on MIT-BIH Atrial Fibrillation Database, and an average score of 0.984 was obtained. Significance. Our proposed ECG signal decomposition technique introduces simple and reliable domain knowledge into deep neural networks, and the dilated residual network provides large and flexible receptive fields, thereby enhancing the performance in the detection of AF. Our method can be extended to many other tasks involving ECG signals.

Enhanced Classification of Heartbeat Electrocardiogram Signals Using a Long Short-Term Memory–Convolutional Neural Network Ensemble: Paving the Way for Preventive Healthcare

In the rapidly evolving field of medical diagnosis, the accurate and prompt interpretation of heartbeat electrocardiogram (ECG) signals have become increasingly crucial. Despite the presence of recent advances, there is an exigent need to enhance the accuracy of existing methodologies, especially given the profound implications such interpretations can have on patient prognosis. To this end, we introduce a novel ensemble comprising Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models to enable the enhanced classification of heartbeat ECG signals. Our approach capitalizes on LSTM’s exceptional sequential data learning capability and CNN’s intricate pattern recognition strength. Advanced signal processing methods are integrated to enhance the quality of raw ECG signals before feeding them into the deep learning model. Experimental evaluations on benchmark ECG datasets demonstrate that our proposed ensemble model surpasses other state-of-the-art deep learning models. It achieves a sensitivity of 94.52%, a specificity of 96.42%, and an accuracy of 95.45%, highlighting its superior performance metrics. This study introduces a promising tool for bolstering cardiovascular disease diagnosis, showcasing the potential of such techniques to advance preventive healthcare.

Machine learning-based detection of cardiovascular disease using ECG signals: performance vs. complexity.

Cardiovascular disease remains a significant problem in modern society. Among non-invasive techniques, the electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most reliable methods for detecting cardiac abnormalities. However, ECG interpretation requires expert knowledge and it is time-consuming. Developing a novel method to detect the disease early improves the quality and efficiency of medical care. The paper presents various modern approaches for classifying cardiac diseases from ECG recordings. The first approach suggests the Poincaré representation of ECG signal and deep-learning-based image classifiers. Additionally, the raw signals were processed with the one-dimensional convolutional model while the XGBoost model was facilitated to predict based on the time-series features. The Poincaré-based methods showed decent performance in predicting AF (atrial fibrillation) but not other types of arrhythmia. XGBoost model gave an acceptable performance in long-term data but had a long inference time due to highly-consuming calculations within the pre-processing phase. Finally, the 1D convolutional model, specifically the 1D ResNet, showed the best results in both studied CinC 2017 and CinC 2020 datasets, reaching the F1 score of 85% and 71%, respectively, and they were superior to the first-ranking solution of each challenge. The 1D models also presented high specificity. Additionally, our paper investigated efficiency metrics including power consumption and equivalent CO2 emissions, with one-dimensional models like 1D CNN and 1D ResNet being the most energy efficient. Model interpretation analysis showed that the DenseNet detected AF using heart rate variability while the 1D ResNet assessed the AF patterns in raw ECG signals. Despite the under-performed results, the Poincaré diagrams are still worth studying further because of the accessibility and inexpensive procedure. In the 1D convolutional models, the residual connections are useful to keep the model simple but not decrease the performance. Our approach in power measurement and model interpretation helped understand the numerical complexity and mechanism behind the model decision.

Comparison of discrimination and calibration performance of ECG-based machine learning models for prediction of new-onset atrial fibrillation

BackgroundMachine learning (ML) methods to build prediction models starting from electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are an emerging research field. The aim of the present study is to investigate the performances of two ML approaches based on ECGs for the prediction of new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF), in terms of discrimination, calibration and sample size dependence.MethodsWe trained two models to predict new-onset AF: a convolutional neural network (CNN), that takes as input the raw ECG signals, and an eXtreme Gradient Boosting model (XGB), that uses the signal’s extracted features. A penalized logistic regression model (LR) was used as a benchmark. Discrimination was evaluated with the area under the ROC curve, while calibration with the integrated calibration index. We investigated the dependence of models’ performances on the sample size and on class imbalance corrections introduced with random under-sampling.ResultsCNN's discrimination was the most affected by the sample size, outperforming XGB and LR only around n = 10.000 observations. Calibration showed only a small dependence on the sample size for all the models considered.Balancing the training set with random undersampling did not improve discrimination in any of the models. Instead, the main effect of imbalance corrections was to worsen the models’ calibration (for CNN, integrated calibration index from 0.014 [0.01, 0.018] to 0.17 [0.16, 0.19]).The sample size emerged as a fundamental point for developing the CNN model, especially in terms of discrimination (AUC = 0.75 [0.73, 0.77] when n = 10.000, AUC = 0.80 [0.79, 0.81] when n = 150.000). The effect of the sample size on the other two models was weaker. Imbalance corrections led to poorly calibrated models, for all the approaches considered, reducing the clinical utility of the models.ConclusionsOur results suggest that the choice of approach in the analysis of ECG should be based on the amount of data available, preferring more standard models for small datasets. Moreover, imbalance correction methods should be avoided when developing clinical prediction models, where calibration is crucial.

Automatic cardiac arrhythmias classification using CNN and attention-based RNN network.

Cardiac disease has become a severe threat to public health according to the government report. In China, there are 0.29 billion cardiac patients and early diagnosis will greatly reduce mortality and improve life quality. Electrocardiogram (ECG) signal is a priority tool in the diagnosis of heart diseases because it is non-invasive and easily available with a simple diagnostic tool of low cost. The paper proposes an automatic classification model by combing convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) to distinguish different types of cardiac arrhythmias. Morphology features of the raw ECG signals are extracted by CNN blocks and fed into a bidirectional gated recurrent unit (GRU) network. Attention mechanism is used to highlight specific features of the input sequence and contribute to the performance improvement of classification. The model is evaluated with two datasets considering the class imbalance problem constructed with records from MIT-BIH arrhythmia database and China Physiological Signal Challenge 2018 database. Experimental results show that this model achieves good performance with an average F1 score of 0.9110 on public dataset and 0.9082 on subject-specific dataset, which may have potential practical applications.

A Temporal Transformer-Based Fusion Framework for Morphological Arrhythmia Classification

By using computer-aided arrhythmia diagnosis tools, electrocardiogram (ECG) signal plays a vital role in lowering the fatality rate associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and providing information about the patient’s cardiac health to the specialist. Current advancements in deep-learning-based multivariate time series data analysis, such as ECG data classification include LSTM, Bi-LSTM, CNN, with Bi-LSTM, and other sequential networks. However, these networks often struggle to accurately determine the long-range dependencies among data instances, which can result in problems such as vanishing or exploding gradients for longer data sequences. To address these shortcomings of sequential models, a hybrid arrhythmia classification system using recurrence along with a self-attention mechanism is developed. This system utilizes convolutional layers as a part of representation learning, designed to capture the salient features of raw ECG data. Then, the latent embedded layer is fed to a self-attention-assisted transformer encoder model. Because the ECG data are highly influenced by absolute order, position, and proximity of time steps due to interdependent relationships among immediate neighbors, a component of recurrence using Bi-LSTM is added to the encoder model to address this characteristic of the data. The model performance indices such as classification accuracy and F1-score were found to be 99.2%. This indicates that the combination of recurrence along with self-attention-assisted architecture produces improved classification of arrhythmia from raw ECG signal when compared with the state-of-the-art models.

3D ECG display with deep learning approach for identification of cardiac abnormalities from a variable number of leads

Objective. The objective of this study is to explore new imaging techniques with the use of the deep learning method for the identification of cardiac abnormalities present in electrocardiogram (ECG) signals with 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12-lead in the framework of the PhysioNet/Computing in Cardiology Challenge 2021. The training set is a public database of 88,253 twelve-lead ECG recordings lasting from 6 s to 60 s. Each ECG recording has one or more diagnostic labels. The six-lead, four-lead, three-lead, and two-lead are reduced-lead versions of the original twelve-lead data. Approach. The deep learning method considers images that are built from raw ECG signals. This technique considers innovative 3D display of the entire ECG signal, observing the regional constraints of the leads, obtaining time-spatial images of the 12 leads, where the x-axis is the temporal evolution of ECG signal, the y-axis is the spatial location of the leads, and the z-axis (color) the amplitude. These images are used for training Convolutional Neural Networks with GoogleNet for ECG diagnostic classification. Main results. The official results of the classification accuracy of our team named ‘Gio_new_img’ received scores of 0.4, 0.4, 0.39, 0.4 and 0.4 (ranked 18th, 18th, 18th,18th, 18th out of 39 teams) for the 12-lead, 6-lead, 4-lead, 3-lead, and 2-lead versions of the hidden test set with the Challenge evaluation metric. Significance. The results indicated that all these algorithms have similar behaviour in the various lead groups, and the most surprising and interesting point is the fact that the 2-lead scores are similar to those obtained with the analysis of 12 leads. It permitted to test the diagnostic potential of the reduced-lead ECG recordings. These aspects can be related to the pattern recognition capacity and generalizability of the deep learning approach and/or to the fact that the characteristics of the considered cardiac abnormalities can be extracted also from a reduced set of leads.

An Automatic ECG Signal Quality Assessment Method Based on Resnet and Self-Attention

Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are among the significant physiological signals that indicate the essential properties of the human body. In recent years, the measurement of ECG signals has become more portable thanks to the increasing usage of wearable health testing technology. However, the enormous amount of signal data gathered over a long period of time does impose a heavy load on medical professionals. In addition, false alarms might occur due to the potential for the detected signal to become jumbled with noise and motion perturbations. Therefore, analyzing the quality of the measured raw ECG signal automatically is a valuable task. In this paper, we propose a new single-channel ECG signal quality assessment method that combines the Resnet network structure and the principle of self-attention to extract ECG signal features using the principle of similarity between individual QRS heartbeats within a time slice of ten seconds. In addition, an improved self-attention module is introduced into the deep neural network to learn the similarity between features. Finally, the network distinguishes between acceptable and unacceptable ECG segments. The model test results indicate that the F1-score can approach 0.954, which leads to a more accurate assessment of the ECG signal quality.