Quality assessment of ECG compression techniques using a wavelet-based diagnostic measure.

Electrocardiograph (ECG) compression techniques are gaining momentum due to the huge database requirements and wide band communication channels needed to maintain high quality ECG transmission. Advances in computer software and hardware enable the birth of new techniques in ECG compression, aiming at high compression rates. In general, most of the introduced ECG compression techniques depend on their evaluation performance on either inaccurate measures or measures targeting random behavior of error. In this paper, a new wavelet-based quality measure is proposed. A new wavelet-based quality measure is proposed. The new approach is based on decomposing the segment of interest into frequency bands where a weighted score is given to the band depending on its dynamic range and its diagnostic significance. A performance evaluation of the measure is conducted quantitatively and qualitatively. Comparative results with existing quality measures show that the new measure is insensitive to error variation, is accurate, and correlates very well with subjective tests.