ECG-GraphNet: Advanced arrhythmia classification based on graph convolutional networks

Abstract

Background Deep learning has significantly improved medical diagnostics, particularly in electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis, yet accurate classification of arrhythmias remains challenging. Objective We propose Electrocardiogram Graph Convolutional Network (ECG-GraphNet), a graph convolutional network designed to classify arrhythmias into 3 types: normal (N), supraventricular ectopic (S), and ventricular ectopic (V) beats. Methods ECG-GraphNet utilizes a novel graph representation of ECG data in which the P wave, QRS complex, and T wave are modeled as individual nodes. A unique QRS-centered weighted average pooling method is employed to enhance beat-specific feature extraction. We systematically explored various aspects including node features, edge definitions, a data augmentation method, and architecture configuration to determine the optimal model design. Experiments were conducted on 10-second ECG recordings from 328 patients using a single-lead device. Results The optimized ECG-GraphNet achieved a Macro F1 score of 88.61% in 5-fold cross-validation. Scalability experiments further demonstrated its robustness, with Macro F1 scores of 85.21% and 87.03% across diverse ECG patterns and sizes. Conclusion Our novel approach and comprehensive analysis underscore the potential advantages of ECG-GraphNet in clinical diagnosis and monitoring.