See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/265854337

Heart diseases prediction based on ECG signals’ classification using a genetic-

fuzzy system and dynamical model of ECG signals

Article  in  Biomedical Signal Processing and Control · November 2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.bspc.2014.08.010

CITATIONS READS

28 760

3 authors, including:

M. H. Vafaie Mohammad Ataei

University of Isfahan University of Isfahan
9 PUBLICATIONS   125 CITATIONS    62 PUBLICATIONS   350 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Nonlinear system time delay state estimation View project

MIMO radar waveform design View project

All content following this page was uploaded by M. H. Vafaie on 14 January 2019.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Biomedical Signal Processing and Control

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/bspc

Heart diseases prediction based on ECG signals’ classification using a

genetic-fuzzy system and dynamical model of ECG signals
M.H. Vafaie, M. Ataei ∗ , H.R. Koofigar
University of Isfahan, Department of Electrical Engineering, Isfahan, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The early detection of abnormal heart conditions is vital to identify heart problems and avoid sudden
Received 25 February 2014 cardiac death. The people with similar heart conditions almost have similar electrocardiogram (ECG) sig-
Received in revised form 15 July 2014 nals. By analyzing the ECG signals’ patterns one can predict arrhythmias. Since the conventional methods
Accepted 21 August 2014
of arrhythmia detection rely on observing morphological features of the ECG signals which are tedious
and very time consuming, the automatic detection of arrhythmia is more preferable. In order to automate
Keywords:
detection of heart diseases an adequate algorithm is required which could classify the ECG signals with
Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals
unknown features according to the similarities between them and the ECG signals with known features.
classification
ECG signals dynamical model
If this classifier can find the similarities precisely, the probability of arrhythmia detection is increased
Genetic algorithm and this algorithm can become a useful means in laboratories. In this article a new classification method
Genetic-fuzzy system is presented to classify ECG signals more precisely based on dynamical model of the ECG signal. In this
Fuzzy logic proposed method a fuzzy classifier is constructed and its simulation results indicate that this classifier
can segregate the ECGs with an accuracy of 93.34%. To further improve the performance of this classifier,
genetic algorithm is applied where the accuracy in prediction is increased up to 98.67%. This proposed
method increases the accuracy of the ECG classification regarding more precise arrhythmia detection.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction consuming. Automation of the ECG signal analysis based on com-

The electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are the recordings of the
bioelectrical activities of the cardiac system and some or all parts
of these signals are changed from normal condition when heart dis-
ease occurs [1,2]. People with similar heart conditions have almost
ECG signals with similar features. If an ECG signal with unknown
features has a morphological pattern similar to that of an ECG signal
with an especial arrhythmia, it could be deduced that this unknown
signal has the same arrhythmia. In such cases, it is possible to detect
the heart disease by analyzing the pattern of the ECG signals.
Early detection of abnormal heart conditions can avoid sudden
cardiac death and other dangerous illnesses caused by heart dis-
ease. Many researchers have reported results on analyzing the ECG
signals and detecting the abnormal conditions thereof. To detect
such conditions in laboratory, a continuous ECG signal monitoring
is required for each patient. This procedure is tedious and very time
∗ Corresponding author at: Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engi-
neering, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. Tel.: +98 0311 7934068/0913 3344056;
fax: +98 3137933071.
E-mail addresses: mh.vafaie@eng.ui.ac.ir (M.H. Vafaie), ataei@eng.ui.ac.ir,
mataei1971@yahoo.com (M. Ataei), koofigar@eng.ui.ac.ir (H.R. Koofigar).
puter programming is a better system to diagnose heart diseases.
In this article a new automatic categorization method is proposed
that can classify similar ECG signals into one group and predict the
potential of the heart diseases in each group.
Several techniques on automatic detection of the abnormal con-
ditions are reported. In these reports, the analysis of the ECG signals
to detect these abnormal conditions is conducted by using auto-
correlation function, frequency domain features, time frequency
analysis and wavelet transform [3–7]. Since these techniques
ignore the nonlinear behavior of the signal dynamics, the informa-
tion provided on ECG signals are insufficient and their classification
based on these techniques is not acceptable. To avoid this deficiency
several articles in the area of the nonlinear analysis and chaos
theory in studying the behavior of the ECG signal from an exper-
imental time series are published. The objective of these articles
is to determine whether the dynamical measures such as correla-
tion dimension and especially the greatest Lyapunov exponent can
serve as useful tools for ECG classification. Though there exist good
results on distinguishing between normal and abnormal patients,
segregation between abnormal ECG signals and their acceptable
classification is yet to be perfected [8–18].
Attempt is made in this article to introduce a method based on
dynamical model of the ECG signal that can classify ECG signals in

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bspc.2014.08.010
1746-8094/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
292 M.H. Vafaie et al. / Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296

a more precise manner which would enhance the prediction of the Table 1
Parameters of the ECG model for generating ECG signal illustrated in Fig. 1(a).
illnesses related to the heart diseases.
This method is found on the fact that similar ECG signals have Index (i) P Q R S T
almost similar heart conditions and when these ECG signals are ti (s) −0.2 −0.05 0 0.05 0.4
modeled a similarity is observed among their parameters. When  i (radians) −0.33 −0.08␲ 0 0.08 0.50
the parameters of the dynamical model of the ECG signals are ai 1.2 −5.0 30.0 −7.5 0.75
obtained, by applying adequate classifier the ECG signals can be bi 0.25 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.4

classified according to these parameters. Through this classifica-

tion, since the ECG signals placed in one group indicate similar Table 2
heart condition, the heart condition of the unknown signals can ECG parameters of a normal person and a person who has an AF arrhythmia.
be predicted.
Parameters Normal heart beat Atrial fibrillation
In order to construct this classifier: first, the genetic algorithm
(GA) is applied to estimate unknown parameters of the dynami- ti = [t1 t2 t3 t4 t5 ] [−0.2 −0.05 0 0.05 0.4] [−0.1 −0.02 0 0.02 0.2]
ai = [a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 ] [1.2 −5.0 30.0 −7.5 0.75] [0 −5.2 29.8 −7.3 0.95]
cal model of the clinically obtained ECG signals from PhysioBank
bi = [b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 ] [0.25 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.4] [0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.4]
database [19], second, by studying a group of ECG signals with
known features, a set of fuzzy rules is generated and through them
a fuzzy classifier is constructed. Here, to improve the performance
f2 is the respiratory frequency [22]. The details of these three
of this fuzzy classifier, the GA is applied to optimize the mem-
differential equations are presented in Appendix I.
bership functions and fuzzy rules which lead to the construction
According to [22], distinct points on the ECG signal like the P,
of a genetic-fuzzy classifier. Finally, this genetic-fuzzy classifier is
Q, R, S, and T used in (1) can be configured by setting ai , bi , and
implemented for ECG signal classification.
 i parameters. The location of these points is set by  i , as well as
The structure of this article is as follows: the dynamical model
the amplitude and the width of the ECG waves are set by ai and bi .
of the ECG signal, the genetic algorithm and its application in esti-
Proper setting of these parameters would generate a desirable ECG
mation of the unknown parameters of the dynamical model are
signal; therefore, by applying the parameters of Table 1 in (1), the
presented in Section 2. The theory of the fuzzy and genetic-fuzzy
ECG signal is generated through MATLAB and illustrated in Fig. 1a.
classifiers is introduced in Section 3 which are used in classifica-
The real ECG signal [19] which has characteristics similar to the
tion of the ECG signals. The results and discussion are presented in
simulated ECG is demonstrated in Fig. 1b to compare real ECG and
Section 4 and finally, the conclusions in Section 5 end the article.
ECG signal generated by simulating (1).
Since heart diseases change the ECG signal model parame-
2. Materials and methods ters, recognizing the effects of these parameters’ changes through
related computer programs make the prediction of the heart dis-
2.1. Dynamical model describing the ECG signals eases more rapid in an automatic manner.

If an ECG signal can be modeled precisely by differential equa-
tions, one can study this signal using certain mathematical tools.
Modeling of the ECG signal by differential equations is of essence,
where the effect of heart diseases on ECG signals can be analyzed
by using the mathematical software like MATLAB. When the effect
of the heart diseases are modeled, by a suitable computer program,
the prediction and diagnosis of the heart diseases can be made and
conducted, respectively, on an automatic basis.
The initial model of the ECG signal was reported in 1972 by
Zeeman [20], where the effects of the sympathetic and parasym-
pathetic nervous system are not considered. A new model for ECG
signal is proposed in [21], where a new parameter according to the
activities of sympathetic and parasympathetic systems is defined
and applied in the Zeeman model. Afterwards, an improved and
flexible model for generating ECG signal which generates a trajec-
tory in the three-dimensional state-space with coordinates (x, y, z)
is introduced; in addition to the fact that the variation of the ECG
is produced through the trajectory motion at z direction [22]. This
model is described using three ordinary differential equations pre-
sented in (1). The accuracy and some applications of this model are
studied in [23].
ẋ = ˛x − wy
ẏ = ˛y − wx
   (1)
i2
ż = − ˛i i exp − − (z − z0 )
2b2i
i∈{P,Q,R,S,T}

where ˛ = 1 − x2 + y2 , i = ( − i ) mod2,  = ˛ tan2
(y, x) (the four quadrant arctangent of the real parts of the ele-
ments of x and y, with − ≤ ˛tan2(y, x) ≤ ) and w is the angular
velocity of the trajectory, zo = Asin(2f2 t) where A = 0.15 mV and
2.2. Genetic algorithm and its application in parameter
estimation
In the ECG model by changing the parameters ai , bi , and  i a
desirable ECG signal can be generated. The value of these parame-
ters is different in the patients with different heart conditions, and
these differences are illustrated in Table 2, where one individual is
normal and the other has an Atrial fibrillation (AF) arrhythmia.
After the values of these parameters for various heart diseases
are identified, then, the values obtained from ECG signal of a patient
with unknown disease are compared to these identified values
which would contribute to the diagnosis of the heart diseases.
The ECG signals in clinics always are obtained in the form of a
continuous signal and a direct access to accurate values of these
parameters is not possible; therefore, in order to obtain these
parameters, the ECG signal must be sampled and these parameters
must be calculated through estimation techniques.
Because the dynamical model of the ECG contains three nonlin-
ear differential equations, the classic estimation methods cannot
be adopted in estimating the unknown parameters of this model
[24–26].
The GA is applied in order to estimate these parameters. In this
proposed method, the unknown parameters of the ECG signal are
estimated in a manner where the error function defined in (2) is
minimized (or its inverse is maximized). In (2), s1 is the sampled
ECG signal obtained from continuous ECG signal acquired in clin-
ical environment with unknown parameters, and s2 is the signal
generated by simulating (1). Both the s1 and s2 are sampled in the
same frequency.

e= (s1(i) − s2(i)), F = 1/e (2)
i
 M.H. Vafaie et al. / Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296 293

Fig. 1. An ECG signal: (a) generated by simulation (b) obtained in clinic.

In this estimation technique, the parameters of s2 are changed Table 3

by GA in a manner that the value of the error function is decreased to
a value lower than predefined threshold, or the value of F reaching
a value higher than predefined threshold.
The objective of the GA is to search and find the unknown
parameters (ai , bi , and  i ) in order to maximize the F value. The
chromosomes used in this estimation have 112 genes consisting
of a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 , b1 , b2 , b3 , b4 , b5 ,  1 ,  2 ,  4 and  5 parameters,
where the samples are: a1 is the value of the parameter a for the
P-wave, b2 is the value of the parameter b for the Q-wave, b3 is the
value of the parameter b for the R-wave and  4 is the value of the
parameter  for the S-wave. In this estimation, since the parameter
 3 representing R-wave position is always zero, it is ignored. Each
one of these parameters is coded in a binary form and consists of
eight genes. The real values of these parameters are obtained by
converting these binary values to decimal values.
The first GA population used in this estimation consists of fifty
random chromosomes. In this estimation, the values of 0.06 and
0.6 are selected as the mutation and cross-over rates, respectively,
according to the rule reported in [24]. For selecting the 0.06 and 0.6
values the trial-and-error method is adopted here. After thirty iter-
ation of the GA, the best chromosome with maximum F is selected
as an optimal solution. In order to select a suitable number of
iterations, some simulations are made at the beginning with fifty
iterations. The simulation results indicate that the optimal chro-
mosome is found by GA after about 26 iterations, and hence, to be
on the safe side, the thirty iterations is selected. After obtaining the
optimal chromosome, the optimal values of the parameters of s1 are
obtained. For examining the accuracy of this estimation method,
an ECG signal of the normal person with known parameters [19]
is selected and this proposed technique is applied for estimating
its parameters. The outcome of the thirty iterations, the real values
and the estimated values of the ECG parameters are illustrated in
Table 3. In this estimation, parameter i is equal to 65,536 (number of
data points obtained from the ECG signal sampling) and the value of
the error function for the optimal chromosome is 0.139, indicating
The estimated ECG parameters obtained by adopting the GA.
Parameters Real values [19] Estimated values
ai [1.20 −5.00 30.00 [1.23 −5.15 29.97
−7.50 0.75] −7.51 0.73]
bi [0.25 0.10 0.10 0.10 [0.21 0.10 0.11 0.10
0.40] 0.38]
i [−0.19 −0.05 0.00 [−0.16 −0.03 0.00
0.07 0.98] 0.08 0.92]
that, GA is a suitable method for estimating the unknown param-
eters of the ECGs obtained in clinics. Based on the results obtained
from this proposed estimation, the ECG signals can be classified
with respect to the estimated parameters.
In this article, the ECG signals of four groups: normal heart
beat (NHB), congestive heart failure beat (CHF), ventricular tach-
yarrhythmia beat (VT), and AF (Appendix II), each with seventy
five ECG signals are collected from PhysioBank; the parameters of
which are obtained through this proposed estimation method. By
using these values, the membership function of each parameter is
generated, which contribute to the construction of the fuzzy rules.
These fuzzy rules in turn contribute to the classification of the ECG
signals and prediction of heart diseases.
3. Theory and calculation
3.1. Fuzzy classifier and its application in ECG signal classification
Here a fuzzy classifier is applied in ECG signals. In this fuzzy clas-
sifier the membership functions are used for describing the input
data. The procedure of generating membership functions for ECG
parameters is described here. This procedure is used for generating
membership function of all ECG model parameters. These member-
ship functions are obtained after estimating the parameters of one
hundred ECG signals with known heart conditions. After identify-
ing these values, according to the upper and lower limits of these
294 M.H. Vafaie et al. / Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296

Table 4
Upper and lower limits of the estimated ECG parameters.

Parameter NHB VTC AF CHF

Min Max Min Max Min Max Min Max

a1 0.98 1.47 −0.06 0.31 −0.07 0.45 0.68 1.53

a2 −5.39 −4.63 −23.6 −18.33 −5.01 −4.12 −5.98 −5.23
a3 29.38 30.71 28.15 33.03 29.11 31.45 28.98 31.72
a4 −8.33 −6.90 −24.07 −19.03 −8.00 −6.28 −8.67 −5.39
a5 0.31 1.04 −0.19 0.38 0.23 1.40 0.40 0.99
b1 0.06 0.43 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.04 0.04 0.38
b2 0.01 0.22 1.61 1.93 0.01 0.20 0.02 0.28
b3 0.08 0.17 1.21 1.57 0.10 0.21 0.05 0.31
b4 0.01 0.22 1.50 1.77 0.01 0.20 0.02 0.32
b5 0.21 0.62 0.03 0.07 0.24 0.76 0.19 0.45
1 −0.43 −0.07 −0.18 −0.03 −0.21 −0.05 −1.23 −0.76
2 −0.23 −0.05 −0.17 −0.01 −0.11 −0.02 −0.33 −0.10
4 0.02 0.17 0.01 0.10 0.02 0.10 0.06 0.23
5 0.88 1.10 0.31 0.68 0.43 0.55 0.91 1.34

Fig. 2. The membership function of a1 parameter according to the data illustrated in Table 4.

parameters (Table 4), the membership functions are constructed.
After studying the values of a1 parameter of all one hundred sig-
nals, the membership function of this parameter is generated and
demonstrated as a sample in Fig. 2.
In this proposed fuzzy classifier a set of IF THEN rules is gen-
erated based on the study conducted on the features of the same
one hundred ECG signals and the constructed membership func-
tions. These one hundred ECG signals are in four groups of (NHB),
(CHF), (VT), and (AF) mentioned above, where each one consists
of twenty-five ECG signals with known heart conditions in accor-
dance with the PhysioBank database. The form of these fuzzy rules
is as follows:
Rule 1 : IF a1 is ZE AND 3 is PS THEN S is AF.
Rule 2 : IF 1 is NL AND 5 is PL THEN S is CHF.
where a1 , a2 , a3 , a4 , a5 , b1 , b2 , b3 , b4 , b5 ,  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 and  5 are
the ECG parameters, NL, NM, NS, ZE, PS, PM and PL are the fuzzy
sets and S is an ECG signal with unknown features the condition
of which must be identified. In fuzzy set definition, NS, ZE, PM and
PL are negative small, zero, positive medium and positive large,
respectively.
After studying all ECG signals with known features, twelve rules
are generated. Because the desired output of this proposed fuzzy
classifier is an ECG group and is not a number; therefore, assigning
unknown ECG signals to these groups using fuzzy rules must be
made in a proper manner. To do this, one membership function is
generated for the output and one fuzzy set is defined for each one of
these ECG groups. Construction of the fuzzy sets must be presented
in a manner where in the defuzzification phase the ECG groups are
segregated perfectly. Furthermore, this membership function must
be generated in a manner where the incorrect selection of a group
is prevented (Fig. 3).
In general, several rules can be corrected under the same cir-
cumstance, while only one group must be selected for unknown
ECG signal. To obtain proper classification, the contribution of
each rule must be combined in an appropriate manner. Here, the
sup-min (supermom-minimum) composition method is adopted.
Moreover, for defuzzification of the output, the center of gravity
(COG) method, presented in (5) is adopted, as follows:
K
i=1
(zi · (zi ))
(3) Z∗ =  K
(5)
i=1
(zi )
(4)
where, Z* is the value of the output obtained from defuzzification,
K is the number of the fuzzy rules, and values of zi and (zi ) are
calculated through the sup-min composition [27]. By applying Z*
according to Fig. 3 the ECG signals are classified. The performance
of this classifier is investigated in Section 4.
3.2. Genetic-fuzzy system and its application in ECG signal
classification
For increasing the accuracy of the fuzzy classifier the GA is
applied in generating a genetic-fuzzy classifier. In this approach,
the fuzzy sets, membership functions and fuzzy rules are opti-
mized through GA, where twelve rules with optimum configuration
are generated. The simulation results indicate that the accuracy
 M.H. Vafaie et al. / Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296 295

Fig. 3. The membership function of the output.

Table 5 Table 6
Fuzzy classifier results. Genetic-fuzzy classifier results.

ECG groups with 75 members Number of ECG signal(s) placed in each ECG groups with 75 members Number of ECG signal(s) placed in each
group using fuzzy classifier group using genetic-fuzzy classifier

NHB CHF VT AF NHB CHF VT AF

NHB 67 2 4 2 NHB 73 0 0 2
CHF 0 71 2 2 CHF 0 75 0 0
VT 1 1 72 1 VT 0 0 74 1
AF 1 3 1 70 AF 0 0 1 74

of the classification is increased significantly; therefore, the heart
diseases can be predicted more precisely. The performance of this
classifier is investigated in Section 4.
4. Results and discussion
4.1. Fuzzy classifier performance analysis
After implementing this proposed fuzzy classifier, in order to
examine its performance, three hundred ECG signals are selected
and applied. These signals consist of four ECG groups each with 75
members. An ideal classifier can segregate ECG signals perfectly,
while in practice this is not so, consequently the performance of
the classifier must be investigated on a constant basis by calculating
the ratio of the ECG signals classified correctly with respect to all
ECG signals applied to the classifier.
Here, after applying three hundred ECG signals, the obtained
results indicate that this classifier can classify ECG signals with an
accuracy of 93.34% (from three hundred ECG signals, 280 signals
are segregated correctly) (Table 5).
4.2. Genetic-fuzzy classifier performance analysis
The above procedure is repeated once more with the same ECG
signals for the genetic-fuzzy classifier and the result is presented
in Table 6. Each row of Tables 5 and 6 is for one ECG group with 75
members.
To describe the results only Table 6 will be analyzed. Each fig-
ure in the related column represents the number of the ECG signals
placed in each group using genetic-fuzzy classifier. In the first row
the actual number of NHB signals is 75 and the actual number of
other arrhythmia is zero while, 73 signals are placed in NHB group
and 2 signals are placed in AF using the genetic-fuzzy classifier;
hence, these 2 signals are detected wrongly. Moreover, in the fourth
row the actual number of AF signals is 75 and the actual num-
ber of the other arrhythmias is zero while, 74 signals are placed
in AF group and one signal is placed in VT using the genetic-fuzzy
classifier; hence one inaccurately predicted signal.
After investigating the performance of the genetic-fuzzy clas-
sifier, the results indicate that the ECG signals are classified with
an accuracy of 98.67% (from three hundred ECG signals, 296 signals
are segregated correctly). This high accuracy percentage means that
the unknown ECG signals can be placed in the corresponding ECG
groups in a more precise manner.
5. Conclusion
Since in laboratories, arrhythmias are detected by continuous
monitoring of the ECG signals which is very time consuming,
this article presents a new method in detecting heart diseases
in an automatic manner. In automatic arrhythmia detection, the
accuracy is the most important factor. Here, two classifiers are
presented to increase the accuracy based on the fact that people
with similar heart condition almost have similar ECG signals, so
the parameters of the ECG model for them are almost identical. In
this method the status of a new ECG signal is predicted through
estimating its parameters and finding the similarities between
them and the parameters of the ECG signals with known heart
conditions. In order to implement these classifiers, the param-
eters of the clinically obtained ECG signals are estimated using
GA and then by studying the features of one hundred signals,
a fuzzy classifier with twelve fuzzy rules is constructed. Three
296 M.H. Vafaie et al. / Biomedical Signal Processing and Control 14 (2014) 291–296
hundred ECG signals are applied to this classifier to test its per-
formance. The ECG signals are classified with accuracy of 93.34%.
For increasing the accuracy of the classification, the membership
functions and fuzzy rules are optimized through the GA leading
to the introduction of a newly constructed genetic-fuzzy classifier.
The classifier and its simulation results indicate an increase in the
accuracy up to 98.67%. By adopting this method, the arrhythmia
is detected more precisely with high contribution to the clinical
practice.
Appendix I. Details about the dynamical model of the ECG
signal
The ECG model presented in (1) generates a trajectory in a three-
dimensional state-space. Quasi-periodicity of the ECG is reflected
by the movement of the trajectory around an attracting limit cycle
of unit radius in the (x, y) plane. Each revolution on this circle cor-
responds to one RR-interval or heart-beat. Interbeat variation in
the ECG is reproduced using the motion of the trajectory in the z
direction. Distinct points on the ECG, such as the P, Q, R, S, and
T are described by events corresponding to negative and positive
attractors/repellors in the z direction [22].
Appendix II. A brief description about the arrhythmia
investigated in this paper
B.1. Atrial fibrillation (AF)
AF is the most common abnormal heart rhythm. It may cause
no symptoms, but is often associated with palpitations, fainting or
chest pain. The cause of an individual’s AF may not be identified. AF
may be identified clinically when taking a pulse and its presence
can be confirmed with an ECG that demonstrates the absence of P
waves and an irregular ventricular rate [28].
B.2. Congestive heart failure (CHF)
CHF means the heart does not pump as well as it should to meet
the body’s oxygen demands, often due to heart diseases such as car-
diomyopathy or cardiovascular disease. CHF can result from either
a reduced ability of the heart muscle to contract or from a mechan-
ical problem that limits the ability of the heart’s chambers to fill
with blood. CHF occurs most frequently in those over age 60 and
is the leading cause of hospitalization and death in that age group.
In over 50 percent of cases, sudden death occurs due to a cardiac
arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat [29].
B.3. Ventricular tachycardia (VT)
Ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation (VF) refers to
any rhythm faster than 100 (or 120) beats/min, with 3 or more
irregular beats in a row, arising distal to the bundle of His. The
rhythm may arise from working ventricular myocardium, the dis-
tal conduction system, or both. During VT, the following may be
observed: hypotension, tachypnea, high jugular venous pressure
and variation in intensity of the first heart sound, caused by loss of
atrioventricular (AV) synchrony [29].
View publication stats
References
[1] P. McSharry, G. Clifford, L. Tarassenko, Method for generating an artificial RR
tachogram of a typical healthy human over 24-hours, Comput. Cardiol. 29
(2002) 225–228.
[2] D. Kaplan, M. Furman, S. Pincus, Techniques for analyzing complexity in
heart rate and beat-to-beat blood pressure signals, Comput. Cardiol. 3 (1990)
243–246.
[3] J.P. Martinez, R. Almeida, S. Olmos, A.P. Rocha, P. Laguna, A wavelet-based
ECG delineator: evaluation on standard databases, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng.
51 (2004) 570–581.
[4] K. Minami, H. Nakajima, T. Toyoshima, Real-time discrimination of ventricular
tachyarrhythmia with Fourier-transform neural network, IEEE Trans. Biomed.
Eng. 46 (1999) 179–185.
[5] Y.H. Hu, S. Palreddy, W. Tompkins, A patient adaptable ECG beat classifier using
a mixture of experts approach, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 44 (1997) 891–900.
[6] S.Z. Mahmoodabadi, A. Ahmadian, M.D. Abolhasani, ECG feature extraction
using Daubechies wavelets, in: Int. Conf. on Vis. Imaging and Image Process,
2, 2005, pp. 343–348.
[7] C. Alexakis, H.O. Nyongesa, R. Saatchi, N.D. Harris, C. Davies, C. Emery, R.H.
Ireland, S.R. Heller, Feature extraction and classification of electrocardiogram
(ECG) signals related to hypoglycaemia, in: IEEE Conf. on Comput. in Cardiol.,
2003, pp. 537–540.
[8] J.I. Salisbury, Y. Sun, Assessment of chaotic parameters in nonstationary elec-
trocardiograms by use of empirical mode decomposition, Ann. Biomed. Eng. 32
(2004) 1348–1354.
[9] M. Small, D. Yu, R.G. Harrison, C. Robertson, G. Clegg, M. Holzer, F. Sterz,
Deterministic nonlinearity in ventricular fibrillation, Am. Inst. Phys. 10 (2000)
268–277.
[10] Y. Zhao, J. Sun, M. Small, Evidence consistence with cardiac data: surrogate and
nonlinear dynamical modeling, Int. J. Bifurc. Chaos 18 (2008) 141–160.
[11] M.I. Owis, A.H. Abou-Zied, A.M. Youssef, Y.M. Kadah, Study of features based on
nonlinear dynamical modeling in ECG arrhythmia detection and classification,
IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 49 (2002) 733–736.
[12] K.K. Jen, Y.R. Hwang, ECG feature extraction and classification using cepstrum
and neural networks, J. Med. Biol. Eng. 28 (2008) 31–37.
[13] E.D. Ubeyli, Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system for classification of ECG
signals using Lyapunov exponents, J. Comput. Methods Prog. Biomed. 93 (2009)
313–321.
[14] S. Karpagachelvi, M. Arthanari, M. Sivakumar, ECG feature extraction tech-
niques – a survey approach, Int. J. Comput. Sci. Inf. Secur. 8 (2010) 76–80.
[15] T.M. Nazmy, H. El-Messiry, B. Al-Bokhity, Adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference sys-
tem for classification of ECG signals, J. Theor. Appl. Inf. Technol. 7 (2010) 71–76.
[16] A. Voss, S. Schulz, R. Schroeder, M. Baumert, P. Caminal, Methods derived from
nonlinear dynamics for analysis heart rate variability, Philos. Trans. R. Soc. 367
(2008) 277–296.
[17] K. Stemickel, Automatic pattern recognition in ECG time series, J. Comput.
Methods Prog. Biomed. 68 (2002) 109–115.
[18] J. Fell, K. Mann, J. Roschke, M.S. Gopinathan, Nonlinear analysis of continuous
ECG during sleep II, dynamical measures, Biol. Cybern. 82 (2002) 485–491.
[19] The MIT-BIH Arrhythmia database. Available from: http://physionet.org/
physiobank/database/mitdb/ [online].
[20] E.C. Zeeman, Differential Equations for the Heartbeat and Nerve Impulse, Math-
ematics Institute, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, 1972.
[21] A. Ayatollahi, N. Jafarnia Dabanloo, D. McLemon, V. Johari Majd, H. Zhang, A
comprehensive model using modified Zeeman model for generating ECG sig-
nals, Iran. J. Electr. Electron. Eng. 1 (2005) 88–93.
[22] P. McSharry, G. Clifford, L. Tarassenko, A dynamical model for generating syn-
thetic electrocardiogram signals, IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 50 (2003) 289–294.
[23] G. Clifford, P. McSharry, A realistic coupled nonlinear artificial ECG, BP and
respiratory signal generator for assessing noise performance of biomedical sig-
nal processing algorithms, in: Proc. of SPIE Int. Symp. on Fluct. and Noise, 2004,
pp. 290–301.
[24] M. Gen, R. Cheng, Genetic Algorithm and Engineering Optimization, John Wiley
& Sons, New York, USA, 1999.
[25] Y. Goletsis, C. Papaloukas, D.I. Fotiadis, A. Likas, L. Michalis, Automated ischemic
beat classification using genetic algorithm and multicriteria decision analysis,
IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng. 51 (2004) 1717–1725.
[26] N.G.B. Amma, Cardiovascular disease prediction system using genetic algo-
rithm and neural network, Comput. Commun. Appl. 5 (2012) 1–5.
[27] T.W. Chua, W.W. Tan, Non-singleton genetic fuzzy logic system for arrhythmia
classification, Eng. Appl. Artif. Intell. 24 (2011) 251–259.
[28] M. Drinnan, J. Allen, A. Murray, Relation between heart rate and pulse transit
time during paced respiration, J. Physiol. Meas. 22 (2001) 425–432.
[29] http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/heart vascular institute