IJREAS Volume 2, Issue 2 (February 2012) ISSN: 2249-3905

FILTERING TECHNIQUES FOR ECG SIGNAL PROCESSING

Seema Nayak*
Dr. M. K. Soni**
Dr. Dipali Bansal**

ABSTRACT
ECG is the graphical recording of the electrical activity of the heart and recognized
biological signal used for clinical diagnosis. The ECG signal is very sensitive in nature, and
even if small noise mixed with original signal the various characteristics of the signal
changes. The signal voltage level is as low as 0.5 to 5mV and is susceptible to artifacts that
are larger than it. The frequency components of a human's ECG signal fall into the range of
0.05 to 100Hz and as far as the noise is concerned; the muscle movements, mains current and
ambient electromagnetic interference generate it. Hence filtering remains an important
issue, as data corrupted with noise must either filter or discarded. This paper discusses
different filtering techniques used in ECG signal preprocessing and their implementation in a
wide variety of systems for ECG analysis in recent research work.
Keywords: Electrocardiogram, ECG Signal Processing, Artifact, Filtering

*Assistant Professor, Echelon Institute of Technology Faridabad

**Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad, India

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I. INTRODUCTION
Electrocardiogram (ECG) consists of graphical recording of electrical activity of the heart
over time. It is most recognized biological signal, and with non- invasive method; it is
commonly used for diagnosis of some diseases by inferring the signal. Cardiovascular
diseases and abnormalities alter the ECG wave shape; e ach portion of the ECG waveform
carries information that is relevant to the clinician in arriving at a proper diagnosis. The
electrocardiograph signal taken from a patient is generally get corrupted by external noises,
hence necessitating the need of a proper noise free ECG signal. A signal acquisition system,
consist of several stages, including: signal acquisition though hardware and software
instrumentation, noise or other characteristics filtering and processing for the extraction of
information [Correia, S. and Miranda, J. (2009)]. Electrocardiography signals recorded on a
long timescale (i.e., several days) for the purpose of identifying intermittently occurring
disturbances in the heart rhythm. Simple ECG waveform shown in Fig.1. It is a combination
of P, T, U wave, and a QRS complex. The complete waveform is called an electrocardiogram
with labels P, Q, R, S, and T indicating its distinctive features.

Fig.-1 Sche matic representation of ECG signal

II. ECG SIGNAL PROCESSING

Signal processing is performed in the vast majority of systems for ECG analysis and
interpretation. It is used to extract some characteristic parameters. Now a days biomedical
signal processing have been towards quantitative or the objective analysis of physiological
systems and phenomena via signal analysis. The field of biomedical signal analysis or
processing has advanced to the stage of practical application of signal processing and pattern
analysis techniques for efficient and improved non invasive diagnosis, online monitoring of
critical ill patients, and rehabilitation and sensory aids for the handicapped. The objective of

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IJREAS Volume 2, Issue 2 (February 2012) ISSN: 2249-3905

ECG signal processing is manifold and comprises the improvement of measurement accuracy
and reproducibility. ECG analysis concerns resting ECG interpretat ion, stress testing,
ambulatory monitoring, or intensive care monitoring, which forms a basic set of algorithms
that conditions the signal with respect to different types of noise and artifacts, detect
heartbeats, extract basic ECG measurements of wave amp litudes and durations, and compress
the data for efficient storage or transmission.
The basic ECG has the frequency range from 0.5Hz to 100Hz. artifacts removal plays the vital
role in the processing of the ECG signal. It becomes difficult for the specialist to diagnose the
diseases if the artifacts are present in the ECG signal
III. TYPES OF ARTIFACT IN ECG SIGNAL
The objectives of acquisition of ECG signal and signal processing system is to acquire the
noise free signal. The major sources of noise are
1. Power line interference
2. Muscle contractions
3. Electrode contact noise
4. Motion Artifacts
5. Baseline wandering
6. Noise generated by electronic devices used in signal processing circuits
7. Electrical interference external to the subject and recording system
8. High- frequency noises in the ECG
9. Breath, lung, or bowel sounds contaminating the heart sounds (PCG).
There are various types of methods to extract the ECG parameters from the noisy ECG
signal. First we need to analyze ECG signal to get which type of noise mesh up with the
signal.
IV. ECG FILTERING: A RECENT REVIEW
The filtering techniques are primarily used for preprocessing of the signal and have been
implemented in a wide variety of systems for ECG analysis. Filtering of the ECG is
contextual and should be performed only when the desired information remains ambiguous.
Many researches have worked towards reduction of noise in ECG signal.
Most types of interference that affect ECG signals may be removed by band pass filters; but
the limitation with band pass filter is discouraging, as they do not give best result. At the
same time, the filtering method depends on the type of noises in ECG signal. In some signals
the noise level is very high and it is not possible to recognize it by single record ing, it is

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IJREAS Volume 2, Issue 2 (February 2012) ISSN: 2249-3905

important to gain a good understanding of the noise processes involved before one attempt to
filter or preprocess a signal. The ECG signal is very sensitive in nature, and even if small
noise mixed with original signal the characteristics of the signal changes. Data corrupted with
noise must either filtered or discarded, filtering is important issue for design consideration of
real time heart monitoring systems.[Himanshu, S. et al (2010)], designed amplifier using
instrumentation amplifier AD620 (Analog Devices) to bring the peak value into a range of
1v; having gain of 1000. For collection of ECG signal he has used band pass filter with
cutoff frequency 0.5Hz-150 Hz on NI ELVIS (National Instruments Educational Laboratory
Virtual Instrumentation Suite) board.as shown in fig-2.

Fig.-2 Band pass filter[Himanshu, S. et al (2010)]

After the filtration the output of the analog filter is fed to the NI ELVIS. It has inbuilt data
acquisition card. DAQ assistant is used to collect the signal after passing through the band
pass filter. The data sampled at a rate of 1 KHz. After acquiring the signal it is processed by
Butterworth (IIR) 3rd order digital filter. The first digital filter is band stop filter between 49.5
to 51.4Hz to eliminate power line interference. Butterworth filter having various orders, the
lowest order being the best in time domain, and higher order being better in frequency
domain. It is having monotonic amplitude frequency response, which is maximally flat at
zero frequency response, and amplitude frequency decreases logarithmically by increasing
frequency.
The main source of baseline wandering is respiration. It is having the frequency range
between 0.15 to 3Hz. They used the wavelet transform to eliminate the Baseline wandering
which is an effective way to remove the signal in specified sub-bands. After the removal of
baseline wandering, the resulting ECG signal is more stationary and explicit than the original
signal. For removing the wideband noises, using Wavelet Denoise Express VI, which is one
of the tool of ASPT [ Himanshu, S. et al (2010)].

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Power line interference is due to improper grounding of ECG equipment and interference
from near by equipment. It is removed by using notch filter. The power line interference is
more influential on the signal compared to the other types of artifact [Correia, S. et al
(2009)]. The major source of such noise is electrical activity of the muscles that should be
removed i.e. the noise present due to power line interface (50HZ) is also to be removed as
shown in fig-3. Even though the analog amplifier having high Common Mode Rejection
Ratio (CMRR), the ECG signals is contaminated by power line interference (50 HZ in India).
In order to discard the sources of noise, proper filtration is required. The suppression of
Baseline Wander and Power Interference can be done using digital IIR filter.

Fig.3: - ECG corrupted due to powe r line interference

[Padma T. et al (2009)] , used adaptive noise filtering for removal of 50 Hz that is the power
line interference because, the ECG signal also contains 50 Hz signal and if normal band reject
filter is used, then the 50 Hz signal which is very important in the ECG signal will be lost.
Therefore by opting adaptive noise filtering, the power line frequency ca n be eliminated at
the same time retaining the 50 Hz signal in the original waveform.
Eduardo P. et al demonstrated in such a way that the signal from the ECG leads is applied to
the inputs of an instrumentation amplifier scheme with a high common mode rejection ratio.
The amplified signal is then filtered using a set of active filters in order to increase the SNR
(Butterworth 50 mHz high-pass filter (HPF) to diminish baseline wandering and slow motion
interferences and Butterworth 150Hz low-pass filter (LPF) to diminish the EMG interference
.For 50Hz interference a 10th order notch digital filter was implemented as part of the digital
signal processing. After analog filtering, the signal is acquired by a multifunction I/O board
(NI USB-6008 with 12 bit resolution and 10 kS/s maximum sampling rate).
The hardware is developed in order to create a portable system based on a Laptop where the
data acquisition device (DAQ) is USB bus-powered and the ECG conditioning circuits are
powered using two 9V (2500mAh) batteries incorporated in the system (the lifetime of the

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batteries is large, as the power consumption is only of 25 mA). The active high-pass filter
removes the baseline fluctuations; the implemented digital filtering block consists of a 150
Hz Bessel LPF and the 50Hz notch filter in order to obtain a better SNR. After digital
filtering the digital signal is processed using an ECG analysis block.
[Ju-Won Lee et al (2005)] used LMS adaptive filter to filter the ECG signal, but its
convergence and performance cause distortions and even poor performance, depending on the
environment and the patient’s condition. They proposed DSAF, which provided better
performance in the experiment and hence suggested LMS adaptive filter (DSAF) applied to
ECG signal processing.
[Dehghani, M. J. et al (2010)] used computer based signal processing and analysis. Baseline
wandering is usually in amplitude of around 15%, full- scale deflection at a frequencies
wandering between 0.15 and 0.3 Hz and a high pass digital filter can only suppress it. They
used a Kaiser Window FIR high pass filter to remove the baseline wandering. They found
that there are still other types of noise, which still affect the ECG signal, after removing
baseline wandering. This noise may be stochastic processes within a wideband so it cannot be
removed by using traditional digital filters. For removing wide band noises, undecimated
wavelet transform (UWT) is applied, which has a better balance between smoothness and
accuracy than the discrete wavelet transforms (DWT).
[Chavan M. S et al (2006)] designed equiripple notch filter having minimum order 580 and
sampling frequency of 1000 Hz and performed using FDA tool in MATLAB. They found the
reduction in signal power of 50 Hz is more in the equiripple and least squares methods when
compared with the window method reduction. [Leif, S et al (2006)] designed a linear, time-
invariant, high pass filter for removal of baseline wander involving several considerations, of
which the most crucial are the choice of filter cutoff frequency and phase response
characteristic. The cutoff frequency should obviously be chosen so that the clinical
information in the ECG signals remains undistorted while as much as possible.[Pedro R. G. et
al ( 2007 )] used two Butterworth filters in ECG acquisition system for reducing the 50 Hz
noise and for eliminating the DC component of the signal and to achieve the peaks P, Q, R, S,
and T without noise and their correspondent position in the array.[Heyoung Lee et al (2008)]
designed a 24-hour health monitoring system in a smart house using a high pass filter with
cut-off frequency 0.1 Hz. It prevents introducing drift noise in the measured signal and the
notch filter removes the 60 Hz power line noise. [Patrick O. B. et al (2004)], used a 60Hz
notch-filter, Texas Instruments UAF42, in the design of the signal acquisition hardware since
the UAF42 has much better attenuation and sharp notch curve control than other
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technologies. This has resulted in major noise reduction while amplifying the ECG signal.
[Yatindra et al (2010)] quantified relative performance analysis of different filtering methods
for power line interface reduction and have discussed three approaches to remove noise and
interference. Frequency - domain filtering (Notch Filter) to remove 50Hz component of ECG
signal. Here the notch filter and other pass band, band stop filters are fixed filter, they used
only limited resources and cannot change its performance according to their need. Wiener
filter use the statistical characteristics for noise removing process like reference signal or
secondary recorded ECG signal. They cannot change its parameter to get the optimal results,
so they called it ad optimal filter. Adaptive filters are self-designing filters based on an
algorithm which allows the filter to “learn” the initial input statistics and to track them, if
they are time varying. The least mean square algorithm used to adjust the weights of the
adaptive filter in order to minimize the error and estimate the deterministic component
through filter output.
[Kenneth, K. et] al developed a more accurate and reproducible method of quantifying
motion artifact in ECG (electrocardiogram) electrodes to assist in electrode assessment and
design. It uses an algorithm developed by Sensor Technology & Devices Ltd. to reliably
overcome the variation in results due to differing skin types and other causes of spurious
readings such as reproducibility of movements used. The method combines a clear, concise
experimental protocol with a software package and DSP algorithm to produce a transferable
result for one pair of electrodes that can be used for comparison.
It is difficult to deal with electrical interference since it can’t be filtered without
compromising the ECG complex because of its similarity to the ECG signal frequency, so it
is best to monitor away from other equipment, ensuring cable and lead wires do not cross the
power cables of other equipment or vent tubing. To reduce muscle tremor and patient
movement, attempt to warm a shivering patient or make them more comfortable in a reclined
position, if possible, rather than adjust a filter setting and then continually check lead wire-to-
electrode connection and electrode-to-patient’s skin adhesion to ensure ECG quality and
prevent false alarms. It is important to select a suitable lead that shows the largest amplitude
and cleanest signal so that a QRS complex and R-wave, in particular, can be accurately
detected by the monitor. Clinicians depend on the monitors they use every day to provide
accurate and useful information. When it comes to ECG quality, the electrode type, electrode
application, and skin preparation are factors that play an important role in sending a good
ECG signal to the monitor for analysis.

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V. CONCLUSION
Technological advances in communication and low power circuit design have enabled the
development of better, safer ECG devices with a capacity to incorporate the latest diagnostic
features. But the issue of the sensitivity of ECG signal getting distorted by even a small noise
makes the study of ECG filtering along with the various types of filters very significant
.Hence the acquisition and analysis of ECG signal still remain a challenging task, despite
technological advances. But further study and research should continue to develop cost
effective and flexible methods of ECG filtering with improved performance of various filters
applied to ECG signal processing.
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