Feature Selection for ECG Beat Classification using Genetic Algorithms

Abstract

In this study, genetic algorithm method was used to select the most suitable set of features for classification of arrhythmia types of heart beats. Normal, right branch block, left branch block and pace rhythm samples of electrocardiography (ECG) signals which obtained from the MIT-BIH cardiac arrhythmia database were used in the classification. Mean, standard deviation, energy and entropy of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) coefficients were proposed as the features for the classification. By using the proposed DWT method, 16 features which have high classification accuracy were obtained among the 208 feature sets constructed from 13 different wavelet types by applying the genetic algorithm method. It was observed that the features that increase accuracy can be detected by the genetic algorithm and the feature set obtained from the coefficients of the different types of wavelets selected at different levels show higher performance than the coefficients obtained from the standard individual wavelet in the ECG arrhythmia classification.