An ECG simulator with a novel ECG profile for physiological signals

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Devices
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Electrocardiography (ECG) is crucial for diagnosing cardiac conditions.
• Accurate and accessible ECG simulators are needed for education and research.
• Existing simulators may lack flexibility or be prohibitively expensive.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a low-cost, open-source ECG simulator.
• To create a flexible tool for generating synthetic, rate-dependent ECG signals.
• To provide a resource for academic research and university education in ECG analysis.

Main Methods:

• Developed a system combining MATLAB software and a dedicated circuit board for ECG signal output.
• Utilized third-order polynomials for synthetic ECG wave and spike generation.
• Calibrated polynomial coefficients using experimental ECG recordings from 22 healthy individuals (40-180 bpm).

Main Results:

• Achieved a mean correlation of 98.57% for the synthetic ECG signals compared to experimental data.
• Demonstrated superior accuracy over a widely accepted rate-dependent ECG profile (91.46% correlation).
• The simulator allows adjustable heart rate, lead signals, wave amplitudes, and distortion parameters.

Conclusions:

• The developed open-source ECG simulator is accurate and cost-effective.
• It offers a valuable tool for teaching ECG principles and for research applications.
• The availability of source code and layout files encourages further development.