Matched filtering for heart rate estimation on compressive sensing ECG measurements

Objective: Compressive Sensing (CS) has recently been applied as a low complexity compression framework for long-term monitoring of electrocardiogram signals using Wireless Body Sensor Networks. Long-term recording of ECG signals can be useful for diagnostic purposes and to monitor the evolution of several widespread diseases. In particular, beat to beat intervals provide important clinical information, and these can be derived from the ECG signal by computing the distance between QRS complexes (R-peaks). Numerous methods for R- peak detection are available for uncompressed ECG. However, in case of compressed sensed data, signal reconstruction can be performed with relatively complex optimisation algorithms, which may require significant energy consumption. This article addresses the problem of hearth rate estimation from com- pressive sensing electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings, avoiding the reconstruction of the entire signal. Methods: We consider a framework where the ECG signals are represented under the form of CS linear measurements. The QRS locations are estimated in the compressed domain by computing the correlation of the compressed ECG and a known QRS template. Results: Experiments on actual ECG signals show that our novel solution is competitive with methods applied to the reconstructed signals. Conclusion: Avoiding the reconstruction procedure, the proposed method proves to be very convenient for real-time, low-power applications.