Computer Program for Automatic Identification of Artifacts in Impedance Cardiography Signals Recorded during Ambulatory Hemodynamic Monitoring

摘要

The aim of this work was to design and verify a computer program which could detect artifacts in impedance cardiography (ICG) signals. It contains a procedure for creating a pattern of one typical cycle of the ICG trace and enabling the classification of each heart evolution as either a valid one or an artifact. It proposed an index characterizing the shape of the ICG signal pattern. The user can significantly influence the classification process by modifying the initial parameters of the patterns. The program automatically detects the characteristic points in the electrocardiographic (ECG) and ICG signals (dZ/dt) necessary for calculation of hemodynamic parameters and allows the user to browse previously recorded data. The program calculates basic cardiac hemodynamic parameters: heart rate (HR), pre-ejection period (PEP), left ventricular ejection time (ET), stroke volume (SV), cardiac output (CO) and other derivative ones, basing on previously classified data. We described the program structure and the operation of its main functions. The application is written in C++ using the Qt graphic library. It is flexible and can be modified or extended to suit the user's needs. The analysis' findings (based on on example data) are also presented.