Preprocessing of Holter ECGs for analysis of the dynamic interrelations between heart rate and ventricular repolarization duration variabilities

The use of approved commercial digital Holter systems as equipment for data acquisition in cardiologic research presents several potential advantages. In fact, it may provide a standard data acquisition procedure that allows the scientists to concentrate on the data processing phase. As a consequence, it may contribute to the comparability of results among different laboratories. In general, some steps of preprocessing are needed before performing the final analysis on the data. In case of study on the variabilities of the heart rate and the duration of repolarization, preprocessing consists of beat-by-beat measurement time intervals in the 24-hour electrocardiograms. Further preprocessing steps may be required, depending on the particular analysis technique that will be applied to the data. In particular, the present study introduces an operator-free method of preprocessing Holter electrocardiograms for time series analysis of signals related to heart rate variability and variability in the duration of ventricular repolarization.