Cardiac Pulse Modeling Using a Modified van der Pol Oscillator and Genetic Algorithms

This paper proposes an approach for modeling cardiac pulses from electrocardiographic signals (ECG). A modified van der Pol oscillator model (mvP) is analyzed, which, under a proper configuration, is capable of describing action potentials, and, therefore, it can be adapted for modeling a normal cardiac pulse. Adequate parameters of the mvP system response are estimated using non-linear dynamics methods, like dynamic time warping (DTW). In order to represent an adaptive response for each individual heartbeat, a parameter tuning optimization method is applied which is based on a genetic algorithm that generates responses that morphologically resemble real ECG. This feature is particularly relevant since heartbeats have intrinsically strong variability in terms of both shape and length. Experiments are performed over real ECG from MIT-BIH arrhythmias database. The application of the optimization process shows that the mvP oscillator can be used properly to model the ideal cardiac rate pulse.