Signal processing for heart rate variability analysis case study: Ventricular tachycardia condition

Abstract

This article explains the signal processing of the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) data analysis on both temporal and spectral domains. Downloaded information of 35 Ventricular Tachycardia (VT) records, the Electrocardiogram (ECG) was step by step converted into autonomic quantitative measures. The overall process included R-wave detection, R-R interval (RRI) construction and time-to-frequency domain data transformation. Our study revealed that two short-term statistical indices are linearly decreasing immediately prior to the VT onset. This suggests that HRV analysis may be used to predict the VT occurrence. The future work is to recruit more local subjects in Thailand and analyze the long-term data prior the VT events. © 2011 IEEE.