R wave peak detection using wavelet decomposition and multi-level thresholding for ECGs acquired in MR scanner

Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) requires synchronization of electrocardiogram (ECG) signal with the acquisition. As the complete acquisition might not be acquired in one heart cycle, its successive acquisitions have to be accurately combined with the cardiac phase motion. Such requirements depends on a reliable detection of the R-wave of the ECG to guarantee that consecutive image data collections always start at the same point of the cardiac cycle. However the interaction of blood flow with static magnetic field, known as Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effect, introduces special kind of artifact in ECG which is known as MHD artifact or flow artifact. The effect of MHD is directly proportional the field strength and complicates the detection of R wave peak from ECG acquired during MR acquisition especially at higher field strengths. This work presents a method to remove noises and to identify R wave peaks which is contaminated with MHD artifact using multilevel wavelet decomposition and multi-level thresholding.

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