Design and implementation of a digital electrocardiographic system

Abstract

To work with bioelectrical signals of the human body is not an easy work. It is necessary to know some biological and electric aspects of the human body. This paper describes necessary knowledge and steps for designing and implementing a digital system for acquisition and processing of an electric human body signal: electrocardiographic signal (EKG). Some of the most important aspects to be considered in the implementation of a digital signal processing (DSP) system to work with human bioelectric signals are described: graphic computation, electronic circuits design with real time restrictions, human body electric signals analysis and online algorithms design). In the context of the last two indicated aspects, some algorithms for the signal filtering are described and some improvements to a classic algorithm for QRS detection of an ECG signal are shown.

Keywords

• ECG
• DSP
• electrocardiogram
• QRS complex
• digital filters
• algorithms