QRS detection using novel digital differentiators

Abstract

one of the important biological signals which is used to measure the health condition of the human being is an Electro Cardio Gram (ECG) Signal. This signal results because of the activity of the heart and consists of P, Q, R, S, T and U waves. QRS Detection is an important problem of research in Biomedical Engineering and Pan Tomkins Algorithm is one of the well-known techniques used for this purpose. The differentiator block forms an important role in the Pan Tompkins Algorithm. So, design of a differentiator with lesser hardware complexity and lesser error at low frequencies is an important research topic. In this paper an attempt is made to detect QRS complexes using novel infinite impulse response type digital differentiators which are obtained by the model order reduction techniques. Second order Savitzky-Golay type digital differentiators are also designed. The results obtained are compared to previous methods. The proposed filters reduce the hardware complexity and make them suitable for real time applications. The simulations are carried out using Matlab environment.