Enhancement of R-wave detection in ECG data analysis using higher-order statistics
A new way of detecting the R-wave in a QRS complex of an electrocardiogram (ECG) based on higher-order statistics (HOS) is presented. The proposed method employs HOS-based parameters, such as skewness and kurtosis, in order to formulate an adaptive detector of the R peak with high accuracy. Experimental results, when applying the proposed method to pre-classified ECG data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Beth Israel Hospital (MIT/BIH) ECG database, prove that the proposed method exhibits over 99% of detectability, even when the ECG data are contaminated with noise. Due to its simplicity it could be feasible in a real-time context and it could be applied in routine ambulatory and/or clinical heart rate screening.