Method to quantify photoplethysmogram (PPG) signal quality

A method for automatically detecting segments of clean photoplethysmography (PPG) signal and rejecting noisy PPG signal segments, comprising:

• receiving as input unfiltered PPG signal and concurrent ECG signal from a patient monitor;
• segmenting each of a plurality of heartbeats in the PPG signal using the concurrently measured ECG signal;
• extracting a set of features for each heartbeat in the PPG signal, the features comprising one or more waveform amplitudes and one or more pulse transitions times (PPT);
• evaluating the extracted features and classifying each PPG heartbeat waveform as clean or noisy, wherein evaluating and classifying do not utilize a motion signal;
• and
• outputting, on a display, PPG signal statistics comprising identified clean PPG heartbeat waveforms for presentation to a user;
• wherein the extracted PPG signal features for each PPG heartbeat waveform comprise peak amplitude, and peak slope amplitude;
• and further comprising classifying the PPG heartbeat waveform as noisy upon a determination that the peak amplitude of the heartbeat waveform is not greater than the amplitude at peak slope of the heartbeat waveform.

A method for automatically detecting segments of clean photoplethysmography (PPG) signal and rejecting noisy PPG signal segments, comprising:

• receiving as input unfiltered PPG signal and concurrent electrocardiograph (ECG) signal from a patient monitor;
• segmenting each of a plurality of heartbeats in the PPG signal using the concurrently measured ECG signal;
• extracting a set of features for each heartbeat in the PPG signal, the features comprising one or more waveform amplitudes and one or more pulse transitions times (PPT);
• evaluating the extracted features and classifying each PPG heartbeat waveform as clean or noisy, wherein evaluating and classifying comprises:
• (i) a first iteration of classification to identify an initial plurality of clean PPG heartbeat waveforms;
• (ii) generating, using the identified initial plurality of clean PPG heartbeat waveforms, a heartbeat template;
• (iii) a second iteration of classification to classify some or all of the initial plurality of clean PPG heartbeat waveforms as finally clean by comparing each of the initial plurality of clean PPG heartbeat waveforms to the generated heartbeat template and classifying the PPG heartbeat waveform as claim if PPG heartbeat waveform matches the heartbeat template at or above a threshold;
• and
• outputting, on a display, PPG signal statistics comprising identified clean PPG heartbeat waveforms for presentation to a user;
• wherein the extracted PPG signal features for each PPG heartbeat waveform comprise peak amplitude, and peak slope amplitude.