Ventricular late potentials characterization in time-frequency domain by means of a wavelet transform

The main transforms of Cohen\´s class allow signal representation simultaneously in time and frequency domains. Wavelet transforms make it possible to link the temporal window width to the analyzing frequency and leads to a "modified wavelet transform" which improves resolution both in time and frequency. A simulation study illustrates the artifacts of every time-frequency representation on pure sinusoids and gives performance evaluation of the different methods when searching a sinusoid embedded in a QRS complex. Analyses of real signals from healthy and pathological subjects confirm the simulation results and complete the characterization of ventricular late potentials yet detected by signal averaging.