Background: Wearable devices represent a new approach for monitoring key clinical parameters, such as ECG signals, for research and health purposes. These devices could outcompete medical devices in terms of affordability and use in out-clinic settings, allowing remote monitoring. The major limitation, especially when compared to implantable devices, is the presence of artifacts. Several authors reported a relevant percentage of recording time with poor/unusable traces for ECG, potentially hampering the use of these devices for this purpose. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance to develop a simple and inexpensive system enabling the user of the wearable devices to have immediate feedback on the quality of the acquired signal, allowing for real-time correction.
Methods: A simple algorithm that can work in real time to verify the quality of the ECG signal (acceptable and unacceptable) was validated. Based on simple statistical parameters, the algorithm was blindly tested by comparison with ECG tracings previously classified by two expert cardiologists.
Results: The classifications of 7200 10s-signal samples acquired on 20 patients with a commercial wearable ECG monitor were compared. The algorithm has an overall efficiency of approximately 95%, with a sensitivity of 94.7% and a specificity of 95.3%.
Conclusions: The results demonstrate that even a simple algorithm can be used to classify signal coarseness, and this could allow real-time intervention by the subject or the technician.
Keywords: ECG; clinical reliability; low-cost technology; signal quality evaluation; wearable devices.