Preliminary study in the analysis of the severity of cardiac pathologies using the higher-order spectra on the heart-beats signals

Phonocardiography is a technique for recording and interpreting the mechanical activity of the heart. The recordings generated by such a technique are called phonocardiograms (PCG). The PCG signals are acoustic waves revealing a wealth of clinical information about cardiac health. They enable doctors to better understand heart sounds when presented visually. Hence, multiple approaches have been proposed to analyze heart sounds based on PCG recordings. Due to the complexity and the high nonlinear nature of these signals, a computer-aided technique based on higher-order statistics (HOS) is employed, it is known to be an important tool since it takes into account the non-linearity of the PCG signals. This method also known as the bispectrum technique, can provide significant information to enhance the diagnosis for an accurate and objective interpretation of heart condition.

The objective expected by this paper is to test in a preliminary way the parameters which can make it possible to establish a discrimination between the various signals of different pathologies and to characterize the cardiac abnormalities.

This preliminary study will be done on a reduced sample (nine signals) before applying it subsequently to a larger sample. This work examines the effectiveness of using the bispectrum technique in the analysis of the pathological severity of different PCG signals. The presented approach showed that HOS technique has a good potential for pathological discrimination of various PCG signals.