Steganography in arrhythmic electrocardiogram signal.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Informatics
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Ensuring patient data security and privacy during medical information exchange is critical.
• Steganography offers a method to conceal sensitive data within cover signals, preventing unauthorized access.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of an Electrocardiogram (ECG) steganography approach for secure patient data transmission.
• To introduce a novel method for hiding patient data within a two-dimensional matrix of abnormal ECG signals.

Main Methods:

• A 2D ECG was constructed using the Tompkins QRS detection algorithm, with missed R peaks identified via RR interval analysis.
• Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) were employed for data embedding within the 2D ECG matrix.
• Abnormal ECG signals from the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database served as cover signals.

Main Results:

• The proposed ECG steganography method demonstrated effective data hiding capabilities.
• Performance was quantitatively assessed using metrics including Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR), Percentage Residual Difference (PRD), Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance, and Bit Error Rate (BER).

Conclusions:

• The study successfully validated an ECG steganography technique for secure medical data transmission.
• The use of abnormal ECG signals as cover media, combined with DWT and SVD, offers a promising approach to enhance patient data security.