Real-time early detection of R waves of ECG signals

A computer algorithm for real-time triggering at the onsets of the R waves of a one-channel electrocardiogram is described. The algorithm is intended for timing the deflation of intraaortic balloon pumping with a control strategy based on real-time triggering. Thus, early detection of the R waves is the primary design goal. The algorithm consists of three steps: differentiation, correlation, and adaptive thresholding. As tested with an ECG database, the algorithm performs robustly and the point of detection is typically before the peak of an R wave