Hybrid feature fusion for classification optimization of short ECG segment in IoT based intelligent healthcare system

ECG-based data-driven solutions for diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases: A systematic review

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are a leading cause of death globally, and result in significant morbidity and reduced quality of life. The electrocardiogram (ECG) plays a crucial role in CVD diagnosis, prognosis, and prevention; however, different challenges still remain, such as an increasing unmet demand for skilled cardiologists capable of accurately interpreting ECG. This leads to higher workload and potential diagnostic inaccuracies. Data-driven approaches, such as machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) have emerged to improve existing computer-assisted solutions and enhance physicians' ECG interpretation of the complex mechanisms underlying CVD. However, many ML and DL models used to detect ECG-based CVD suffer from a lack of explainability, bias, as well as ethical, legal, and societal implications (ELSI). Despite the critical importance of these Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) aspects, there is a lack of comprehensive literature reviews that examine the current trends in ECG-based solutions for CVD diagnosis or prognosis that use ML and DL models and address the Trustworthy AI requirements. This review aims to bridge this knowledge gap by providing a systematic review to undertake a holistic analysis across multiple dimensions of these data-driven models such as type of CVD addressed, dataset characteristics, data input modalities, ML and DL algorithms (with a focus on DL), and aspects of Trustworthy AI like explainability, bias and ethical considerations. Additionally, within the analyzed dimensions, various challenges are identified. To these, we provide concrete recommendations, equipping other researchers with valuable insights to understand the current state of the field comprehensively.

ECG Measurement Uncertainty Based on Monte Carlo Approach: An Effective Analysis for a Successful Cardiac Health Monitoring System

Measurement uncertainty is one of the widespread concepts applied in scientific works, particularly to estimate the accuracy of measurement results and to evaluate the conformity of products and processes. In this work, we propose a methodology to analyze the performance of measurement systems existing in the design phases, based on a probabilistic approach, by applying the Monte Carlo method (MCM). With this approach, it is feasible to identify the dominant contributing factors of imprecision in the evaluated system. In the design phase, this information can be used to identify where the most effective attention is required to improve the performance of equipment. This methodology was applied over a simulated electrocardiogram (ECG), for which a measurement uncertainty of the order of 3.54% of the measured value was estimated, with a confidence level of 95%. For this simulation, the ECG computational model was categorized into two modules: the preamplifier and the final stage. The outcomes of the analysis show that the preamplifier module had a greater influence on the measurement results over the final stage module, which indicates that interventions in the first module would promote more significant performance improvements in the system. Finally, it was identified that the main source of ECG measurement uncertainty is related to the measurand, focused towards the objective of better characterization of the metrological behavior of the measurements in the ECG.

A New 12-Lead ECG Signals Fusion Method Using Evolutionary CNN Trees for Arrhythmia Detection

The 12 leads of electrocardiogram (ECG) signals show the heart activities from different angles of coronal and axial planes; hence, the signals of these 12 leads have functional dependence on each other. This paper proposes a novel method for fusing the data of 12-lead ECG signals to diagnose heart problems. In the first phase of the proposed method, the time-frequency transform is employed to fuse the functional data of leads and extract the frequency data of ECG signals in 12 leads. After that, their dependence is evaluated through the correlation analysis. In the second phase, a structural learning method is adopted to extract the structural data from these 12 leads. Moreover, deep convolutional neural network (CNN) models are coded in this phase through genetic programming. These trees are responsible for learning deep structural features from functional data extracted from 12 leads. These trees are upgraded through the execution of the genetic programming (GP) algorithm to extract the optimal features. These two phases are used together to fuse the leads of ECG signals to diagnose various heart problems. According to the test results on ChapmanECG, including the signals of 10,646 patients, the proposed method enjoys the mean accuracy of 97.60% in the diagnosis of various types of arrhythmias in the Chapman dataset. It also outperformed the state-of-the-art methods.