Stability of ECG amplitude measurements in systematic noise tests. Results and recommendations from the CSE project

As a measure for performance of ECG computer programs, systematic noise tests have been performed within the European project Common Standards For Quantitative Electrocardiography. Ten original and ten artificial VCG and ECG records (the artificial records were constructed from one beat of the original ones) without and with added noise were processed by eight ECG programs and by five VCG programs. Three lowpass filtered high frequency noise levels, line frequency noise and three baseline noise levels were added to the original records. The processing results for the noise-free and for the noisy records have been analyzed in the CSE coordinating center. Results presented in this study refer to the amplitude differences obtained after comparison of results from noise-free and noisy ECG records. Increasing high frequency noise results in overestimation of peak amplitudes and increased variability of measurements.