Computerized Electrocardiography and Fuzzy Sets

This paper describes a system for the analysis of the diagnostic electrocardiogram (ECG). The main emphasis is placed on the problems of ECG description, medical knowledge representation, clinical decision. In all these fields the use of fuzzy sets is a powerful tool to treat imprecision and vagueness. Electrocardiographic features are represented by fuzzy linguistic expressions; pathological classes are defined in terms of fuzzy descriptors; diagnostic classification is obtained by means of the composition of fuzzy relations. The result is (for all possible pathologies) a group of three fuzzy sets defined in the interval [0,1], each one representing the relative (fuzzy) degree of membership of the ECG under examination in one of the three classes: Normal, Abnormal, Borderline.

[1]  M Demeester,et al.  Assessment of the performance of electrocardiographic computer programs with the use of a reference data base. , 1985, Circulation.

[2]  Joseph Wartak,et al.  Computers in electrocardiography , 1970 .

[3]  D. Dubois,et al.  Unfair coins and necessity measures: Towards a possibilistic interpretation of histograms , 1983 .

[4]  P W Macfarlane,et al.  A critical appraisal of computer assisted ECG interpretation. , 1979, Journal of medical engineering & technology.

[5]  J J Bailey,et al.  The importance of reproducibility testing of computer programs for electrocardiographic interpretation: application to the automatic vectorcardiographic analysis program (AVA 3.4). , 1976, Computers and biomedical research, an international journal.

[6]  J. Hirshfeld,et al.  A Method for Evaluating Computer Programs for Electrocardiographic Interpretation: I. Application to the Experimental IBM Program of 1971* , 1974, Circulation.

[7]  Lotfi A. Zadeh,et al.  A Theory of Approximate Reasoning , 1979 .

[8]  D. Dubois,et al.  Operations on fuzzy numbers , 1978 .

[9]  P. W. MacFarlane,et al.  Trends in computer processed electrocardiograms , 1978 .

[10]  J. Bailey,et al.  A Method for Evaluating Computer Programs for Electrocardiographic Interpretation: II. Application to Version D of the PHS Program and the Mayo Clinic Program of 1968 , 1974, Circulation.

[11]  J. Cornfield,et al.  Clinical application of a second generation electrocardiographic computer program. , 1975, The American journal of cardiology.

[12]  Hubert V. Pipberger,et al.  Digital Recording of Electrocardiographic Data for Analysis by a Digital Computer , 1959 .