engleski

Effects of data compression on segmented electrocardiogram

Different compression algorithms have been used in modern digital electrocardiology. The highest compression ratio is achieved by using lossy algorithms. Reconstructed signal, which has been treated with such algorithm, loses certain features, which might have diagnostic importance. There are many measures, which tried to reveal significance of introduced changes and their correlation with medical opinion. However none of them is perfect and there are still significant differences in diagnostic meaning of electrocardiogram (ECG) and mathematical measure of its quality. One of the reasons for these discrepancies is the fact that different compression algorithms do not change the signal in the same way and that importance of changes in signal shape varies with part of the signal in which it occurred. This paper presents results of the research performed with various ECG compression algorithms on different parts of ECG signal. The measures of signal quality are compared with statistically analysed medical opinion. By this approach we are able to identify acceptable amount of distortion in particular part of the signal. Presented results reveal that different diagnostic conditions have various sensitivity to compression algorithms depending on the part of the signal in which they are dominantly observed.

data compression ; segmented electrocardiogram

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