A comparison of algorithms for ambulatory ECG compression with fixed average data rate

The author modified three electrocardiogram (ECG) data compression algorithms, average beat subtraction with residual differencing (ABSURD), SAPA compression, and TRIM compression, to produce specified average data rates. He tested the three algorithms on channel one of the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database sampled at 100 sample/s. With a target data rate of 193 b/s, average data rates for the SAPA and ABSURD algorithms varied from 99.7 to 100.1% of the target data rate. TRIM compression algorithms ranged from 87.3% to 101.7% of the target rate. With the average data rate controlled, ABSURD produced signal-to-compression noise ratios that ranged from 46 to 943. SAPA produced SNRs that ranged from 47 to 436, and TRIM produced SNRs that ranged from 54 to 806