An automatic tool for pediatric heart sounds segmentation

In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for pediatric heart sound segmentation, incorporated into a graphical user interface. The algorithm employs both the Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Phonocardiogram (PCG) signals for an efficient segmentation under pathological circumstances. First, the ECG signal is invoked in order to determine the beginning and end points of each cardiac cycle by using wavelet transform technique. Then, first and second heart sounds within the cycles are identified over the PCG signal by paying attention to the spectral properties of the sounds. The algorithm is applied on 120 recordings of normal and pathological children, totally containing 1976 cardiac cycles. The accuracy of the segmentation algorithm is 97% for S₁ and 94% for S₂ identification while all the cardiac cycles are correctly determined.