Determination of heart rate from photoplethysmogram using Fast Fourier Transform

Critical incidents can be occurred during anesthesia which may lead to death. These events can be detected using pulse oximeter; an instrument that produces photoplethysmogram, a signal represents volumetric measurement of an organ. During anesthesia, heart rate is commonly measured using photoplethysmogram. In this study, two different methods of measuring heart rate from photoplethysmogram were investigated; heart rate measurement using frequency obtained from Fast Fourier Transform analysis and peak of the time-domain signal. Results from this study shows that the heart rate measurement from Fast Fourier Transform analysis is slightly lower than that of using the second approach. Thus, the Fast Fourier Transform analysis is reliable for heart rate measurement and the algorithm proposed in this study can be embedded in pulse oximeter to provide heart rate of anesthetic patients.