BRAVEHEART

BRAVEHEART performs automated processing and quantitative analysis of standard 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECG) and vectorcardiograms (VCG) for cardiovascular research.

Key Features:

• Modular Design: A modular architecture enables customization of analysis components to fit specific research needs.
• Format Compatibility: Supports a broad range of digital ECG formats, including standard 12-lead ECG recordings.
• Signal Denoising: Removes high- and low-frequency artifacts from ECG signals to improve analysis accuracy.
• Non-Dominant Beat Identification and Removal: Identifies and excludes non-dominant beats so analyses use representative cardiac cycles.
• Fiducial Point Annotation: Performs accurate annotation of fiducial points for precise temporal measurement on ECG waveforms.
• VCG Construction: Constructs vectorcardiograms from processed ECG data to represent three-dimensional cardiac electrical activity.
• Median Beat Construction: Generates median beats by averaging multiple cardiac cycles to reduce variability.
• Customizable Measurements: Computes user-defined measurements on median beats for tailored quantitative analysis.
• Output Formats: Produces numeric and graphical result outputs for downstream analysis and visualization.
• Implementation: Implemented in the MATLAB programming language.

Scientific Applications:

• Cardiovascular disease diagnosis: Quantitative ECG/VCG measurements support investigation and characterization of cardiac pathologies.
• Risk stratification of adverse events: Automated analyses facilitate research into predictors of future adverse cardiovascular events.

Methodology:

Processing steps explicitly include signal denoising, non-dominant beat identification and removal, fiducial point annotation, VCG construction and median-beat generation, computation of measurements on median beats, and generation of numeric and graphical outputs; the software is implemented in MATLAB and accepts multiple digital ECG formats.