An improved automatic detector of T-wave alternans in ECG using multi-pretreatment

T-wave alternans (TWA) in electrocardiogram (ECG) is associated with an increasing propensity to ventricular arrhythmic and is regarded as an independent indicator of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Various methods have been proposed to detect and quantify TWA in recent years, however, less attention was paid on the pretreatment stage before the final decision step. A detector with spectral method (SM) using multi-pretreatment was designed to detect TWA in this paper. It was tested with ECGs in the PhysioNet database, and the testing results showed that this improved system was effective to obtain enhanced detection results in comparison of ordinary methods in three aspects.