Multifractal application on electrocardiogram

Abstract

Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis is applied to analyse the degree of disorders, complexity and irregularity based on scaling behaviour of electrocardiogram. Since this method is based on random walk theory, noise level due to imperfect measurement in recording is reduced and it can systematically eliminate trends of different orders. The essence of this method is to extract the fractal features in ECG which can reflect changes in adaptability of physiological processes and to classify the pathological conditions and can lead to successful diagnosis. Fractal analysis is, therefore, a promising diagnostic tool in cardiovascular disease diagnosis and evaluation.

• Electrocardiogram
• fractal dimension
• multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis
• multifractal spectrum

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Indu Saini for the advice, and all volunteers for taking part in the experiment and also to the physiobank database for providing the recorded ECG signal.