ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Signal Process.
Sec. Biomedical Signal Processing
Unraveling Cardiac Arrhythmia Frequency: Comparative Analysis Using Time and Frequency Domain Algorithms
Provisionally accepted
- 1Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organisation, Max Planck Society, Göttingen, Germany
- 2German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK e. V.),, Göttingen, Germany
- 3Origami Data Science Services, Werder (Havel), Germany
- 4Institute of Molecular and Cell Physiology, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany
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During cardiac arrhythmia, the heart frequency is an important physiological parameter that can be identified by analyzing electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. However, the accuracy of the frequency estimation becomes increasingly challenging as the ECG morphology becomes more complex, for example, during transitions from tachycardia to fibrillation. In this paper, the authors compare seven conventional and novel time-and frequency-domain methods for cardiac arrhythmia frequency analysis, including an algorithm used in implantable cardioverter defibrillators. The objective of this study is to identify the approaches that reveal the potential presence of a dominant frequency and its role in characterizing different arrhythmia types. By evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each method, the authors aim to establish an informative framework for extracting meaningful insights from electrocardiogram data in the context of cardiac arrhythmia frequency. In order to ascertain the statistical relevance of the methods, a dataset comprising 112 ECGs from arrhythmic murine hearts was analyzed. Additionally, a dataset comprising human arrhythmia data was examined to validate the techniques presented. The R-library, which contains the frequency determination algorithms, as well as the murine data set, is made available to the reader for the purposes of further testing and supplementation.
Keywords: cardiac arrhythmia, frequency estimation, morphological analysis, Spectralanalysis, time series analysis, Ventricular Fibrillation, ventricular tachycardia
Received: 17 Sep 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Diaz-Maue, Witt, Elshareif and Nobach. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laura Nayeli Diaz-Maue
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