Accuracy comparison between two microcontroller-embedded R-wave detection methods for heart-rate variability analysis

Analysis of heart rate variability, which is calculated using the R-R intervals (RRI) of electrocardiogram (ECG), provides beneficial information for both clinical and healthcare diagnoses. To achieve the required accuracy for RRI measurement using the wearable telemetery system, two R-wave detection methods (one based on voltage threshold and another that adopts differential peak detection) were developed for implementation in a low-power microcontroller integrated into a wearable telemeter. Accuracy of these methods were compared using a clinical-grade ECG measurement system to evaluate the systematic errors of the proposed methods by correlation and Bland-Altman analyses.