Quantification of real-time ECG data compression algorithms

We simulated five real-time data compression algorithms on cardiac electrograms to determine which would maximize the efficiency of memory usage in medical devices: Zero Order Prediction tolerance comparison (ZOP), First Order Prediction tolerance comparison (FOP), Differential Pulse Code Modulation (DPCM), the Fan, and Second Differences (SD). The Fan and FOP methods ranked first and second for the quality of the compressed waveform. The predicted storage rates for waveforms sampled at 200 Hz with the Fan and FOP were 75 and 95 bytes/s, respectively with compression ratios of 6:1 and 5:1, respectively.