Precision Diagnosis: An Automated Method for Detecting Congenital Heart Diseases in Children From Phonocardiogram Signals Employing Deep Neural Network

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), congenital heart disorders (CHDs) impact a significant proportion of babies worldwide, with prevalence rates ranging from 0.8% to 1.2%. Phonocardiography (PCG) is the leading non-invasive method for detecting congenital heart defects (CHDs), offering important information about cardiac signals i.e. S1, S2, S3, and S4 and heartbeat patterns. This research study focuses on developing a strong binary classification system for congenital heart diseases (CHDs) utilizing deep neural networks. The system will be trained on a combined dataset that includes both local and publicly available repositories. The local dataset (LD) consists of 583 signals containing both normal and aberrant PCG recordings, while the public dataset (PD) obtained from Michigan University consists of 23 PCG recordings. In order to achieve consistency and compatibility, both datasets are subjected to down-sampling, resulting in a frequency of 8 kHz. A well-engineered band-pass filter efficiently removes signals outside the 20–650 Hz range, allowing for exclusive processing of the desired frequencies. The signals are divided into segments, each lasting exactly 4 seconds. The study utilizes data augmentation techniques, specifically pitch-shifting, to boost the model’s robustness. This is accomplished by implementing a 1D convolutional neural network (CNN). The most notable outcomes are achieved in case C, exhibiting a sensitivity of 99.0%, specificity of 98.0%, F1 score of 98.56%, precision of 98.57%, and an accuracy of 98.56%. This study enhances the progress of automated techniques for detecting congenital heart disease (CHD), demonstrating the potential of deep neural networks in precision medicine for pediatric cardiology.