Using a Calculated Pulse Rate with an Artificial Neural Network to Detect Irregular Interbeats

J Med Syst. 2016 Mar;40(3):48. doi: 10.1007/s10916-015-0409-x. Epub 2015 Dec 7.

Abstract

Heart rate is an important clinical measure that is often used in pathological diagnosis and prognosis. Valid detection of irregular heartbeats is crucial in the clinical practice. We propose an artificial neural network using the calculated pulse rate to detect irregular interbeats. The proposed system measures the calculated pulse rate to determine an "irregular interbeat on" or "irregular interbeat off" event. If an irregular interbeat is detected, the proposed system produces a danger warning, which is helpful for clinicians. If a non-irregular interbeat is detected, the proposed system displays the calculated pulse rate. We include a flow chart of the proposed software. In an experiment, we measure the calculated pulse rates and achieve an error percentage of < 3% in 20 participants with a wide age range. When we use the calculated pulse rates to detect irregular interbeats, we find such irregular interbeats in eight participants.

Keywords: Calculated pulse rate detector; Infrared laser light; Neural steady pulse wave; Noninvasive pulse wave; Sensor; Signal detection.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Arrhythmias, Cardiac / diagnosis*
  • Heart Rate / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Infrared Rays
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / instrumentation*
  • Neural Networks, Computer*
  • Pulse
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation*
  • Software Design