DECGAP: an automatic ECG analysis program

Abstract

A description is given of DECGAP (Democritos ElectroCardioGram Analysis Program), a program for the automatic ECG (electrocardiographic) analysis developed at the NRCPS 'Democritos'. The methods and algorithms used by DECGAP in the stages of preprocessing, detection-recognition, and parameter extraction of the ECG waves are described. Experimental and evaluation results are also given, with an actual ECG taken from the standard CSE ECG library. The DECGAP program uses a general transformation for the detection of all cardiac waves, which is valid for single and multichannel ECG. Only one threshold is used, which is automatically determined. The boundary recognition phase is avoided, since it is executed at the same time as detection and is obtained as a by-product. Correct boundary recognition makes the recognition of the waves, as well as the baseline drift correction, easy and precise, resulting in precise measurements of the waves.<>