IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2024 Jul;71(7):2014-2021. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2024.3359752. Epub 2024 Jun 19.
The Ear-ECG provides a continuous Lead I like electrocardiogram (ECG) by measuring the potential difference related to heart activity by electrodes which are embedded within earphones. However, the significant increase in wearability and comfort enabled by Ear-ECG is often accompanied by a degradation in signal quality - an obstacle that is shared by the majority of wearable technologies. We aim to resolve this issue by introducing a Deep Matched Filter (Deep-MF) for the highly accurate detection of R-peaks in wearable ECG, thus enhancing the utility of Ear-ECG in real-world scenarios. The Deep-MF consists of an encoder stage, partially initialised with an ECG template, and an R-peak classifier stage. Through its operation as a Matched Filter, the encoder searches for matches with an ECG template in the input signal, prior to filtering these matches with the subsequent convolutional layers and selecting peaks corresponding to the ground-truth ECG. The latent representation of R-peak information is then fed into a R-peak classifier, of which the output provides precise R-peak locations. The proposed Deep Matched Filter is evaluated using leave-one-subject-out cross-validation over 36 subjects with an age range of 18-75, with the Deep-MF outperforming existing algorithms for R-peak detection in noisy ECG. The Deep-MF achieves a median R-peak recall of 94.9% and a median precision of 91.2% across subjects when evaluated with leave-one-subject-out cross validation. Overall, this Deep-Match framework serves as a valuable step forward for the real-world functionality of Ear-ECG and, through its interpretable operation, the acceptance of deep learning models in e-Health.
耳 ECG 通过测量耳机内嵌入的电极与心脏活动相关的电位差,提供类似于常规心电图(ECG)的连续导联。然而,耳 ECG 可显著提高佩戴的舒适性和便捷性,但其信号质量往往会下降,这是大多数可穿戴技术都面临的共同问题。我们旨在通过引入深度匹配滤波器(Deep-MF)来解决这个问题,以实现可穿戴 ECG 中 R 波的高精度检测,从而提高耳 ECG 在实际场景中的实用性。Deep-MF 由编码器阶段和 R 波分类器阶段组成,部分由 ECG 模板初始化。通过作为匹配滤波器的操作,编码器在输入信号中搜索与 ECG 模板匹配的部分,然后用后续的卷积层过滤这些匹配部分,并选择与真实 ECG 对应的峰值。然后,将 R 波信息的潜在表示输入到 R 波分类器中,其输出提供精确的 R 波位置。该方法在 36 名年龄在 18-75 岁之间的受试者中进行了留一受试者交叉验证,通过留一受试者交叉验证评估,Deep-MF 在嘈杂 ECG 中的 R 波检测性能优于现有算法。当通过留一受试者交叉验证进行评估时,Deep-MF 在所有受试者中的 R 波召回率中位数为 94.9%,精度中位数为 91.2%。总的来说,这种深度匹配框架是耳 ECG 在实际应用中的一个重要进展,并且通过其可解释的操作,也有助于在电子健康领域接受深度学习模型。