Arrhythmia Classification with Single-Channel Features Extracted from “A Large-Scale 12-Lead ECG Database for Arrhythmia Study”

This study assesses how classical and modern features extracted from a single ECG lead (II) influence automated arrhythmia classification. Using the Large Scale 12-Lead Electrocardiogram Database for Arrhythmia Study and MATLAB®, we compared traditional morphological measures (e.g., QRS duration, QT interval, atrial/ventricular rates) with advanced time-, frequency-, and nonlinear-domain descriptors. The method classifies ECGs into four or eight categories using 15–39 features, either automatically selected or combined. In the eight-class task, 29–39 features yielded 69% accuracy; in the four-class task, 15 MRMR-selected features achieved 94.2% accuracy. A key strength is efficiency: relying on a single lead reduces preprocessing, storage, and classification time by a factor of ~12 compared with 12-lead approaches. These findings show that advanced descriptors from a single lead can match multi-lead performance, enabling practical, scalable clinical applications.