title: Comparison of Baseline Wander Removal Techniques considering the Preservation of ST Changes in the Ischemic ECG: A Simulation Study.
abstract: The most important ECG marker for the diagnosis of ischemia or infarction is a change in the ST segment. Baseline wander is a typical artifact that corrupts the recorded ECG and can hinder the correct diagnosis of such diseases. For the purpose of finding the best suited filter for the removal of baseline wander, the ground truth about the ST change prior to the corrupting artifact and the subsequent filtering process is needed. In order to create the desired reference, we used a large simulation study that allowed us to represent the ischemic heart at a multiscale level from the cardiac myocyte to the surface ECG. We also created a realistic model of baseline wander to evaluate five filtering techniques commonly used in literature. In the simulation study, we included a total of 5.5 million signals coming from 765 electrophysiological setups. We found that the best performing method was the wavelet-based baseline cancellation. However, for medical applications, the Butterworth high-pass filter is the better choice because it is computationally cheap and almost as accurate. Even though all methods modify the ST segment up to some extent, they were all proved to be better than leaving baseline wander unfiltered.
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8479-0040
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lenis
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pilia
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2487-4744
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loewe
authors.affiliation: EP Solutions SA, Rue Galilée 7, 1400 Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Walther H W
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Schulze
authors.affiliation: Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBT), Fritz-Haber-Weg 1, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany.
authors.forename: Olaf
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dössel
mesh_terms: D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016477:Artifacts; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted