This chapter presents an investigation of the distribution of medically relevant information in ECG signal timelines. ECG records clearly represent a cycle of heart evolution; its components, although partly superimposed, follow the time-related dependencies of heart function. During the initial inspection of the ECG, the cardiologist focuses his or her attention on several points of the trace, seeking signs of disease. It seems obvious, but is not often considered, that some segments of the signal are more important for a doctor than the remaining parts. Depending on a doctor’s habits and experience, the interpretation starts from the most severe or most suspected abnormality or from the most unusual signal component. The order of the ECG inspection is based on the investigation strategy and is determined by irregular distribution of medical information in the ECG. These assumptions have already been explored with regard to speech or audio signals, resulting in numerous successful applications, such as the MP3 compression algorithm.
A Novel Blaschke Unwinding Adaptive-Fourier-Decomposition-Based Signal Compression Algorithm With Application on ECG Signals