Analysis of Waveshape and Waveform Complexity

This chapter explains how waveshapes and waveform complexity in biomedical signals relate to the characteristics of the underlying physiological and pathological phenomena and proposes techniques to parameterize and analyze the signal features that are identified. It focuses on characteristics that could be observed or derived in the time domain. The parameters considered were designed with the aim of discriminating between different types of waveshapes, or of representing change in waveform complexity through the course of a physiological or pathological process. It should be borne in mind that, in most practical applications, a single parameter or a couple of measures may not adequately serve the purposes of signal analysis or diagnostic decision making. A practical application would need to maintain a broad scope of analysis and use several parameters to detect various possible abnormalities. An investigator should consider the possibility that a parameter observed to be useful in the time domain may serve the needs in the analysis of some other signals in a different domain.