Application of Savitzky-Golay digital differentiator for QRS complex detection in an electrocardiographic monitoring system

This paper proposes using of a Savitzky-Golay digital differentiator (SGDD) in difference operation method (DOM) algorithm to detect QRS complex in an electrocardiographic monitoring system. Such modification enables using the SGDD low-pass feature to eliminate hardware filtering stages. Moreover, the SGDD also eliminates 60-Hz noise by choosing the proper window size and polynomial order. A Savitzky-Golay digital differentiator with thirteen samples window and third order polynomial, running at 360-Hz, increases the signal-to-noise ratio in 25 times. Performance has been evaluated by comparing the figures of merit for false positives, false negatives and true positives between both original DOM algorithm and the proposed modified one, showing notorious improvements.