A tool for ECG signal analysis using standard and optimized Hermite transform

The development of a system that would ease the diagnosis of heart diseases would also fasten the work of the cardiologic department in hospitals and facilitate the monitoring of patients with portable devices. This paper presents a tool for ECG signal analysis which is designed in MATLAB. The Hermite transform domain is exploited for the analysis. The proposed transform domain is very convenient for ECG signal analysis and classification. Parts of the ECG signals, i.e. QRS complexes, show shape similarity with the Hermite basis functions, which is one of the reasons for choosing this domain. Also, the information about the signal can be represented using a small set of coefficients in this domain, which makes data transmission and analysis faster. The signal concentration in the Hermite domain and consequently, the number of samples required for signal representation, can additionally be reduced by performing the parametrization of the Hermite transform. For the comparison purpose, the Fourier transform domain is also implemented within the software, in order to compare the signal concentration in two transform domains. The application of the proposed method in clinical practice includes arrhythmia and heart failure detection, as well as other abnormalities of the cardiac rhythm.