ISSN (Print) : 2320 – 3765

ISSN (Online): 2278 – 8875

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

MATLAB Based GUI for Arrhythmia

Detection Using Wavelet Transform
P. Keerthi Priya1*, Dr.G.Umamaheswara Reddy 2
PG Student [CS], Dept. of ECE, SVU College of Engineering, Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh, India1
Associate professor, Dept. of ECE, SVU College of Engineering, Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh, India2
Co-responding author

ABSTRACT: Cardiac arrhythmia indicates abnormal electrical activity of heart can be threat to human, so it has to be
automatically identified for clinical diagnosis and treatment. This paper presents efficient and flexible software tool
based on Matlab GUI to analyse ECG, extract features using Discrete Wavelet transform and by comparing them with
normal ECG classify arrhythmia type. Proposed software tool is tested for multiple databases like MIT-BIH and
Creighton University arrhythmia databases. Performance of software is tested with total of nineteen long length ECG
samples, arrhythmias detected are Tachycardia, Bradycardia, Ventricular Tachycardia, Asystole, First degree heart
block, and Second degree heart block from the results obtained algorithm has sensitivity of 94.12%, positive
predictive of 88.9% and accuracy of 86.61%.the software tool along with detecting arrhythmia, helps in analysing ECG
by provides different parameters of ECG like sampling frequency, PR, RR interval and QRS width.

KEYWORDS: Electrocardiogram (ECG), Matlab GUI, wavelet transform, heart disorders, Features

I.INTRODUCTION

An Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is a register of the heart’s electrical activity. The frequency range of ECG is from
(0.1-150) Hz. It is widely used routine for cardiac diagnostic tool. A typical ECG tracing of normal heart beat consists
of a P wave, a QRS complex, a T wave and a U wave which is shown in fig1. Successive repetition of these “PQRST”
in monotony forms ECG. The characteristics of normal heart rhythm also called Normal Sinus Rhythm (NSR) are listed
in table1, any disorder in these parameters results in a pathological condition called Arrhythmia or dysrhythmia Three
common types of arrhythmias are supraventricular arrhythmia, ventricular arrhythmia and Bradyarrhythmias.
Supraventricular arrhythmia are tachycardia (fast heart rates) types include atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, paroxysmal
supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) and Wolff-Parkinson-white (WPW) syndrome. Ventricular arrhythmia include
ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation .Bradyarrhythmia occurs because of slower heart rate. ECG signal
being non-stationary it’s difficult to
visually analyse and may take lot of
time, hence we need computer based
methods for its analysis.
ECG features extraction play vital in
disease identification, many methods
are developed for this in both time
domain and frequency domain. Time
domain approaches [2] are not
always adequate to study all the
features of ECG signal, therefore
frequency representation of signal is
needed. Recently proposed methods
for arrhythmia detection in ECG
include Discrete Wavelet transform
(DWT), Principal component
analysis, fast Fourier transform, KL
transform and complex techniques

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 ISSN (Print) : 2320 – 3765
ISSN (Online): 2278 – 8875

International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering
(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

like artificial neural networks, Support Vector Machine, Hidden Markova models. In this paper we’ll develop simple
and accurate algorithm using Discrete Wavelet transform (DWT).Wavelets can provide a time versus frequency
representation of the signal and work well on non-stationary data.

II. LITERATURE SURVEY

Recently several research algorithms have been developed for arrhythmia detection in ECG signals some of them are
using wavelet transform, Fuzzy logic Methods, Support Vector Machines with approach exhibiting its own advantages
and disadvantages. S.Z Mohmoodabadi[3] used db4,db6 daubechies wavelet for extracting features from ECG signal
this algorithm achieves positive predictivity of 98% and sensitivity of 99% . But this method can detect only peaks of
ECG, failed to classify diseases in it. Jayalaxmi C M [6] developed Graphical User Interface that it can detect heart
rate and various intervals of ECG signal. This algorithm can detect only what ECG parameters have abnormality but
not classify them accordingly. Mujeeb Rahman [2] implemented traditional approach for extracting QRS complex in
ECG which has differential filter followed by squaring filter. Disadvantage is that we need to have separate analog,
digital denoising filters, lack of which causes severe reduction in accuracy of algorithm.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

(A). Data acquisition: ECG samples are taken not only from MIT-BIH but also from Creighton University arrhythmia
databases. MIT-BIH signals have sampling frequency of 360hz.All ECG samples are of standard Lead II. Matlab
software is used for computer programming
(B). Algorithm Description: Figure 2 shows the block diagram of our algorithm. Our algorithm mainly involves 3
steps .those are Pre-processing, feature extraction and classification.
(i)Pre-processing: ECG data was first normalized to unit maximum amplitude and DC offset is removed. Figure 3
shows normal ECG, this signal is normalized and dc removed. After that wavelet transform is applied
Wavelet transform: For extracting parameters of ECG we use wavelet transform, wavelet analysis breaks a signal down
into its constituent parts for analysis. Mother wavelet transform we use here is Daubechies of D6 family if a signal is
not well represented by one member of the Db family, it may still be efficiently represented by another. Daubechies
wavelet family has similar shape to QRS complex and their energy spectrum is concentrated around low frequencies
The wavelet transform is a convolution of the wavelet function ψ (t) with the signal x (t). Orthonormal dyadic discrete
wavelets are associated with scaling functions ϕ (t).
The scaling function can be convolved with the signal to produce approximation coefficients. The discrete wavelet
transform (DWT) can be written as:
Tm,n =∫x(t)ψ m,n (t)dt----------------------------(1)
By choosing an orthonormal wavelet basis, ψm,n (t) , and we can reconstruct the original. The approximation coefficient
of the signal at the scale m and location n can be presented by
S m,n =∫ x(t)ϕ m,n (t)dt ---------------------------(2)
In practice our discrete input signal S0, n is of finite length N, which is an integer power of 2: N = 2M .Thus the range of
scales that can be investigated is 0 < m < M. A discrete approximation of the signal can be shown as
X0(t) =XM (t) + ∑ dm (t) ----------------------- (3)
Where the mean signal approximation at scale M is
XM (t) = ∑ S M, n ϕ m, n (t) ---------------------- (4)
and the detail signal approximation corresponding to scale m is defined for a finite length signal as

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

Fig (2). Block diagram of algorithm

dm (t) =∑ Tm, n(t)ψm,n(t)-------------------------(5)

Adding the approximation of the signal at scale index M to the sum of all detail signal components across scales gives
the approximation of the original signal at scale index 0. The signal approximation at a specific scale was a
combination of the approximation and detail at the next lower scale.
Xm (t) = Xm-1(t) -dm (t) -------------------------- (6)
If scale m = 3 was chosen, it can be shown that the signal approximation is given by
X3(t) = X0 (t) -d1 (t) -d2 (t) -d 3(t) ------------- (7)
This is referred to as multi resolution analysis of a signal using wavelet transform, and is used in our procedure 0<m<M
A discrete approximation of the signal can be shown as

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Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

1.5

0.5

-0.5

-1

1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 2200

Fig (3).Input ECG signal

Input ECG signal is decomposed in to approximate and detailed coefficients. Figure (4), (5) gives all detailed and
needed approximate coefficients of input ECG signal. Of all those only d3, d4, d5, a6 coefficients are used to
reconstruct ECG signal. Now reconstructed signal is used for further processing .ECG signal was de-noised by
removing wavelet coefficients at higher scales.

ecg signal
1

0.5

-0.5
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
d1 coefficient
0.01

-0.01
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
d2 coefficient
0.2

-0.2
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
d3 coefficient
0.5

-0.5

-1
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Fig (4) input ECG signal with corresponding d1, d2, d3 detailed coefficients

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

(ii)Feature Extraction: Detection of P wave, QRS complex wave is difficult as ECG signal varies with time due to
psychological conditions and presence of noise. Two Thresholds, one considering amplitude and other interval between
samples are applied to reconstructed signal. Samples greater than threshold are considered remaining are ignored. Find
maximum peaks in signal which are nothing but R-peaks. Four timing windows are created to detect remaining peaks
(P, Q, S, and T) in signal.From the detected peaks we calculate parameters like RR, PR interval and QRS width for each
beat.

d4 coefficient
1

-1

-2
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
d5 coefficient
2

-2
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
a6 coefficient
2

-2
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
reconstructed ECG signal
2

-1
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500

Fig (5) d4, d5, d6 detailed, a6 coefficient and reconstructed signal (d3+d4+d5+a6)

(iii) Classification: Based on features extracted (RR, PR intervals and QRS duration) decision rules were formed. In
our algorithm we take average of 8 RR, PR interval and QRS width.so intervals considered are averaged ones. Total of
6 decision rules are formed after profoundly studying many arrhythmias. Some of the arrhythmia classifying decision
rules are
For Bradycardia
If (QRS == 0.11&&PR>0.2 && abnormalbeats==0&&PR<0.2) ----------------------- (8)
For Tachycardia
If (QRS == 0.11&&PR<0.2 && RR<0.85 && (abnormalbeats==0)) ------------------- (9)
Using this decision rules we can detect totally six Arrhythmias those are Bradycardia, Tachycardia, Ventricular
Tachycardia, Asystole (Complete Heart Block), First Degree AV block, Second Degree AV block

C. Performance Measure: We have used three parameters for evaluating performance of our algorithm. Those are
accuracy, sensitivity, positive predictive. These parameters are defined using 4 measures True Positive (TP), True
Negative (TN), False Positive (FP), and False Negative (FN)
True Positive: arrhythmia detection coincides with decision of physician
True Negative: both classifier and physician suggested absence of arrhythmia
False Positive: system labels a healthy case as an arrhythmia one
False Negative: system labels an arrhythmia as healthy
Accuracy: Accuracy is the ratio of number of correctly classified cases, and is given by

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Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

Accuracy= (TP+TN) / N----------------------- (10)
Total number of cases are N
Sensitivity: Sensitivity refers to the rate of correctly classified positive. Sensitivity may be referred as a True Positive
Rate. Sensitivity should be high for a classifier
Sensitivity = TP / (TP+FN) -------------------- (11)
Positive predictive: Positive predictive is probability that disease is present when test is positive, which is by how
much amount disease is correctly predicted.
Positive predictive = TP/ (TP+FP) ------------ (12)

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Matlab-based GUI-driven tool is developed for effective detection and classification of arrhythmia using ECG signals.
Totally 19 ECG samples are tested, table (1) shows results of our proposed method for some ECG samples. Algorithm
works fine for noise contaminated signals also. We consider the entire duration ECG recordings since the proposed
method does not require any learning phase.

Table. (1) Shows arrhythmia classification using our algorithm for some ECG signals

ECG FILE(S) Arrhythmia classification

107 Second degree AV block
228,108,109 First degree AV block
113,16265,611 Tachycardia
101 Bradycardia
Asystole (complete heart
37,41,chf15,chf04
block)
212 Normal
18177,cu01*,cu03* Ventricular tachycardia

Cu01, cu03 signals are from Creighton University arrhythmia databases .The proposed algorithm tested on multiple
databases and works fine. Some MIT-BIH records exhibits high graded noise and artifacts like records 108,228 contain
several baseline drifts and abrupt changes, record 113 has tall sharp T waves and record 223 exhibits sudden changes in
QRS amplitudes, still our algorithm effectively detected heart disorder. Record 232 include long pauses up to 6 s in
duration with high muscle noise, here our algorithm fails to correctly classify type of arrhythmia but still correctly
predicts patient’s abnormal heart condition. Obtained features for some records with corresponding disease detected is
tabulated in table (2)

The proposed algorithm implemented on a 1.8 GHz Intel core i3 CPU using MATLAB version 13a, the average
processing time required for performing our method on each 30 min ECG data in the MIT-BIH database is
approximately 2.24 s

Table. (2) Calculated parameters from our algorithm for some ECG samples

Database name RR interval PR interval QRS width Arrhythmia

detected

Standard value 0.8-0.85 0.12-0.2 0.09 Normal

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Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

101
0.89 0.148 0.10 Bradycardia
107 Second degree heart
0.8503 0.149 0.15 block
109 First degree heart
0.8601 0.2410 0.1135 block

113 0.6677 0.123 0.0747 Tachycardia

212 0.829 0.141 0.124 Normal

223 0.667 0.159 0.1125 Tachycardia

First degree heart
228 1.5778 0.2306 0.1372 block

611 0.45 0.1403 0.1014 Tachycardia

16265 0.2163 0.0507 0.0337 Tachycardia

- - - Complete heart
37 block
Chf15
0.0819 0.0958 0.167 Heart block

(A.)GUI building: GUI for this software is divided into number of subgroups according to their functionality. Our
software module not only detects arrhythmia but also helpful in analysing ECG signal.
Signal loading: ECG signals in database are listed in list box. We can select whatever signal we want and load it with
push button “load”
Plotting panel: In this we have plotting toolbox with start and stop point for plotting ECG signal in axes plane, this is
provided for user’s flexibility in selecting signal segment they want and analyse it.
Signal information panel: This panel displays signal sampling frequency and its duration.
Annotations: Peaks of ECG signal can be detected and facility is there to choose peaks users want to see(R or P or T or
all peaks) by choosing radio buttons.

Parameters Calculation: parameters from our algorithm PR, RR interval and QRS width can be find by clicking push
buttons in this panel.

Disease detection panel: if the patient is suffering with disease or not, if yes then what type of arrhythmia he’s
suffering with, can be found by “Diagnoise” push button then arrhythmia is displayed in box.

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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Fig (8). Shows GUI layout before execution

Figure (8) shows graphical user interface(GUI) developed for proposed algorithm before execution .As described above
figure shows GUI having all sub groups in it."CLOSE" button is used to exit application any time.

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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(An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization)

Vol. 4, Issue 2, February 2015

Fig (9).Shows GUI after execution

Figure (9) shows graphical user interface (GUI) after execution execution of algorithmn.Here input sample taken is
"611" dat file from MIT-BIH database.Proposed algorithmn sucessfully detected arrhythmia as "Tachycardia" as shown
in text box with red color.ECG peaks "PQRST" detected are highlighted with different colors each.

IV. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE

In this paper we have developed and tested effective and flexible software tool using Matlab for ECG arrhythmia
detection. The proposed algorithm achieved sensitivity of 94.12%, positive predictively of 88.9% and disease detection
accuracy of 86.1% but accuracy dropped to 77.3% for highly muscle artifact signals. Our software tool can be extended
to detect more arrhythmia and by implementing de-noising filters we can increase accuracy for our algorithm.As far as
our knowledge concerned no software tool based on Matlab GUI can detect these many arrhythmias and at same time
analyse ECG signal in detail. Obtained results indicate that proposed algorithm can support various types of arrhythmia
detection in clinical tests

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International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical,

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