Robust Identification of the QRS-Complexes in Electrocardiogram Signals Using Ramanujan Filter Bank-Based Periodicity Estimation Technique

Plausibly, the first computerized and automated electrocardiogram (ECG) signal processing algorithm was published in the literature in 1961, and since then, the number of algorithms that have been developed to-date for the detection of the QRS-complexes in ECG signals is countless. Both the digital signal processing and artificial intelligence-based techniques have been tested rigorously in many applications to achieve a high accuracy of the detection of the QRS-complexes in ECG signals. However, since the ECG signals are quasi-periodic in nature, a periodicity analysis-based technique would be an apt approach for the detection its QRS-complexes. Ramanujan filter bank (RFB)-based periodicity estimation technique is used in this research for the identification of the QRS-complexes in ECG signals. An added advantage of the proposed algorithm is that, at the instant of detection of a QRS-complex the algorithm can efficiently indicate whether it is a normal or a premature ventricular contraction or an atrial premature contraction QRS-complex. First, the ECG signal is preprocessed using Butterworth low and highpass filters followed by amplitude normalization. The normalized signal is then passed through a set of Ramanujan filters. Filtered signals from all the filters in the bank are then summed up to obtain a holistic time-domain representation of the ECG signal. Next, a Gaussian-weighted moving average filter is used to smooth the time-period-estimation data. Finally, the QRS-complexes are detected from the smoothed data using a peak-detection-based technique, and the abnormal ones are identified using a period thresholding-based technique. Performance of the proposed algorithm is tested on nine ECG databases (totaling a duration of 48.91 days) and is found to be highly competent compared to that of the state-of-the-art algorithms. To the best of our knowledge, such an RFB-based QRS-complex detection algorithm is reported here for the first time. The proposed algorithm can be adapted for the detection of other ECG waves, and also for the processing of other biomedical signals which exhibit periodic or quasi-periodic nature.