Quantitative analysis of errors due to power-line interference and base-line drift in detection of onsets and offsets...

Timing characterisation of the ECG using wavelet transforms is a new technique in which multiscale analysis reduces the influence of noise. This technique issued to investigate the effect of noise and to estimate the errors involved in the detection of onsets and offsets of ECG waves. With appropriate choice of scales of analysis, the study shows that the errors involved in the measurement of QRS width in the presence of base-line wander are negligible. The 50 Hz power-line interference introduces a maximum error of 6.25% if it is greater than 50% of the signal amplitude. The P and T complexes are not affected by power-line interference, but the base-line wander introduces a maximum error of 9.6%. In situations with the simultaneous presence of both types of noise, the use of an optimised scale restricts the errors to within clinically acceptable limits.