Early detection of sudden cardiac death using Poincaré plots and recurrence plot-based features from HRV signals

In this paper we present a method to predict sudden cardiac death (SCD) based on the heart rate variability (HRV) signal and recurrence plots and Poincaré plot-extracted features. This work is a challenge since it is aimed to devise a method to predict SCD 5 min before its onset. The method consists of four steps: preprocessing, feature extraction, feature reduction, and classification. In the first step, the QRS complexes are detected from the electrocardiogram signal and then the HRV signal is extracted. In the second step, the recurrence plot of the HRV signal and Poincaré plot-extracted features are obtained. Four features from the recurrence plot and three features from the Poincaré plot are extracted. The features are recurrence rate, determinism, entropy and averaged diagonal line length, and SD1, SD2, and SD1/SD2. In the next step, these features are reduced to one feature by the linear discriminant analysis technique. Finally, K-nearest neighbor and support vector machine-based classifiers are used to classify the HRV signals. We use two databases, the MIT/BIH Sudden Cardiac Death Database and PhysioBank Normal Sinus Rhythm Database. We manage to predict SCD occurrence 5 min before the SCD with accuracy of over 92%.