Noise detection and suppression in ECG using adaptive filter algorithm

A novel Power Line Interference (PLI) detection and suppression algorithm is proposed to preprocess Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. A distinctive feature of this algorithm is the ability to detect the presence or absence of PLI in the ECG signal before applying the PLI suppression algorithm in the ECG signal. Only after the detection of PLI, it can be suppressed. We propose a PLI detector employing a classifier designed based on observations of the Root Mean Square (RMS) values of noise and reference ECG signals. An efficient recursive Least Mean Square (LMS) adaptive notch filter was also developed to serve the purpose of PLI suppression. An adaptive filter consists of a digital filter with adjustable coefficients and an LMS algorithm to modify the coefficient values to filter each sample. Experimental results demonstrate superior performance of this proposed algorithm.