Automated Assessment of the Electrocardiogram Aided Pulse Transit Time in Healthy Individuals - A Pilot Study

Electrocardiogram(ECG) and Pulse-Plethysmograph(PPG) are of extreme importance in the diagnosis and evaluation of numerous cardiovascular disorders. ECGs, along with Blood-Pressure(BP), and Pulse Wave Amplitude (PWV) help to ascertain various anatomical as well as physiological traits of the individuals. The present work emphasizes on the calculation of one such feature namely the Pulse- Transit- Time(PTT) ascertained with the aid of ECG and PPG signals by a software based automated approach using MATLAB tool. The ECG and PPG are acquired using a BIOPAC MP 36 signal acquisition module and are processed further as per the algorithm developed in MATLAB tool to calculate the PTT. To evaluate the presently developed algorithm, a pilot dataset of ECGs and PPGs signals from 10 subjects were acquired and their PTT was calculated using the presently developed algorithm which can be used in many clinical applications for various diagnostic purposes. Validation of the PTT value needs to be the next step from a clinical perspective. This approach can be further extended to calculate similar features to obtain valuable insights into the functionality of the cardiovascular system of the subjects considered.