Calculating optimal virtual lead from multichannel ECG by minimizing morphological beat-to-beat variability

A novel measure of the morphological beat-to-beat variation of signals derived from multichannel ECG is presented. It is used to find an optimal linear functional that maps the electrical activity of the heart into a single virtual lead in the sense of least beat-to-beat variability. The results show that for each subject it is possible to find a virtual lead with less beat-to-beat variability compared to the standard ECG-leads. Furthermore, the new measure gives precise quantitative information about the beat-to-beat variability in the standard lead set.