Date of Award

6-2021

Degree Name

MS in Electrical Engineering

Department/Program

Electrical Engineering

College

College of Engineering

Advisor

Vladimir Prodanov

Advisor Department

Electrical Engineering

Advisor College

College of Engineering

Abstract

Electrocardiogram (ECG) time-domain signals contain important information about the heart. Several techniques have been proposed for creating a two-dimensional visualization of an ECG, called a Cardioid, that can be used to detect heart abnormalities with computer algorithms. The derivative method is the prevailing technique, which is popular for its low complexity, but it can introduce distortion into the Cardioid plot without additional signal processing. The Hilbert transform is an alternative method which has unity gain and phase shifts the ECG signal by 90 degrees to create the Cardioid plot. However, the Hilbert transform is seldom used and has historically been implemented with a computationally expensive process. In this thesis we show a low-complexity method for implementing the Hilbert transform as a finite impulse response (FIR) filter. We compare the fundamental differences between Cardioid plots generated with the derivative and Hilbert transform methods and demonstrate the feature-preserving nature of the Hilbert transform method. Finally, we analyze the RMS values of the transformed signals to show how the Hilbert transform method can create near 1:1 aspect ratio Cardioid plots with very little distortion for any patient data.

Share

COinS