Integrating physical activity detection in heart rate variability and cardiac arrhythmia analysis

Electrocardiogram (ECG) has been widely used in clinical diagnosis of cardiac arrhythmia. In particular, real-time detection of lethal cardiac arrhythmia such as ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation is important for patients with cardiovascular diseases. In addition, ST deviation during exercise indicates insufficient blood supply or infarction in myocardium, and autonomic imbalance implied from heart rate variability is associated with the mortality. However, physical activity (PA) usually confuses these interpretations. In this study, PA-related ECG analyses and real-time implementation on mobile devices will be addressed. Incorporating PA into ECG analysis not only avoids the confounding interpretation caused by PA, but also provides a way to probe cardiac functions during different PAs.