Deep learning methods for ECG data achieve accuracy comparable to traditional feature-based approaches, with hybrid CNN-RNN ensembles using expert features yielding the best results.
Systematic Review (n=191)
Deep learning methods, particularly hybrid CNN-RNN architectures with expert features, achieve state-of-the-art performance in ECG analysis tasks but face ongoing challenges in interpretability and scalability.
Background:The electrocardiogram (ECG) is one of the most commonly used diagnostic tools in medicine and healthcare. Deep learning methods have achieved promising results on predictive healthcare tasks using ECG signals. Objective:This paper presents a systematic review of deep learning methods for ECG data from both modeling and application perspectives. Methods:We extracted papers that applied deep learning (deep neural network) models to ECG data that were published between Jan. 1st of 2010 and Feb. 29th of 2020 from Google Scholar, PubMed, and the DBLP. We then analyzed each article according to three factors: tasks, models, and data. Finally, we discuss open challenges and unsolved problems in this area. Results: The total number of papers extracted was 191. Among these papers, 108 were published after 2019. Different deep learning architectures have been used in various ECG analytics tasks, such as disease detection/classification, annotation/localization, sleep staging, biometric human identification, and denoising. Conclusion: The number of works on deep learning for ECG data has grown explosively in recent years. Such works have achieved accuracy comparable to that of traditional feature-based approaches and ensembles of multiple approaches can achieve even better results. Specifically, we found that a hybrid architecture of a convolutional neural network and recurrent neural network ensemble using expert features yields the best results. However, there are some new challenges and problems related to interpretability, scalability, and efficiency that must be addressed. Furthermore, it is also worth investigating new applications from the perspectives of datasets and methods. Significance: This paper summarizes existing deep learning research using ECG data from multiple perspectives and highlights existing challenges and problems to identify potential future research directions.
Hong et al. (Sat,) conducted a systematic review in Electrocardiogram (ECG) data analysis (n=191). Deep learning methods vs. Traditional feature-based approaches was evaluated on Accuracy in ECG analytics tasks. Deep learning methods for ECG data achieve accuracy comparable to traditional feature-based approaches, with hybrid CNN-RNN ensembles using expert features yielding the best results.