COMPARISON BETWEEN DISCRETE AND PACKET WAVELET TRANSFORM ANALYSES IN THE STUDY OF HEARTBEAT CARDIAC SOUNDS

Abstract

This work investigates the study of heartbeat cardiac sounds through time–frequency analysis by using the wavelet transform method. Heart sounds can be utilized more efficiently by medical doctors when they are displayed visually rather through a conventional stethoscope. Heart sounds provide clinicians with valuable diagnostic and prognostic information. Although heart sound analysis by auscultation is convenient as a clinical tool, heart sound signals are so complex and nonstationary that they are very difficult to analyze in the time or frequency domain. We have studied the extraction of features from heart sounds in the time–frequency (TF) domain for the recognition of heart sounds through TF analysis. The application of wavelet transform (WT) for heart sounds is thus described. The performances of discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and wavelet packet transform (WP) are discussed in this paper. After these transformations, we can compare normal and abnormal heart sounds to verify the clinical usefulness of our extraction methods for the recognition of heart sounds.