Simulation of Physiologic Ectopic Beats in Heartbeat Intervals to Validate Algorithms

Diseases of the heart and the cardiovascular system are the leading cause of death in developed countries. The heart rate variability is a promising marker for these diseases and shows a significant relationship to cardiovascular mortality, but is easily disrupted by ectopic heart beats. Numerous methods of ectopic beat correction exist to counteract this problem, but they need to be validated using comprehensive data sets with customizable features. Therefore, in this work an ectopic beat simulator based on physiologic data is presented. During its development, statistical properties of real heart rate variability data containing ectopic beats are evaluated and a model is built. This model is integrated in a simulator capable of mimicking numerous medical conditions. The results are inspected using qualitative and quantitative comparisons between the simulator and real heart rate variability data by visual inspection and analysis of covariance. They show a reasonable reproduction of ectopic beats, enabling comprehensive validation of ectopic beat correction methods.