Cardiac Conduction Model for Generating 12 Lead ECG Signals With Realistic Heart Rate Dynamics

We present an extended heterogeneous oscillator model of cardiac conduction system for generation of realistic 12 lead ECG waveforms. The model consists of main natural pacemakers represented by modified van der Pol equations, and atrial and ventricular muscles, in which the depolarization and repolarization processes are described by modified FitzHugh–Nagumo equations. We incorporate an artificial RR-tachogram with the specific statistics of a heart rate, the frequency-domain characteristics of heart rate variability produced by Mayer and respiratory sinus arrhythmia waves, normally distributed additive noise and a baseline wander that couple the respiratory frequency. The standard 12 lead ECG is calculated by means of a weighted linear combination of atria and ventricle signals and thus can be fitted to clinical ECG of real subject. The model is capable to simulate accurately realistic ECG characteristics including local pathological phenomena accounting for biophysical properties of the human heart. All these features provide significant advantages over existing nonlinear cardiac models. The proposed model constitutes a useful tool for medical education and for assessment and testing of ECG signal processing software and hardware systems.