The goal of the 2016 PhysioNet/CinC Challenge is the development of an algorithm to classify normal/abnormal heart sounds. A total of 124 time-frequency features were extracted from the phonocardiogram (PCG) and input to a variant of the AdaBoost classifier. A second classifier using convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained using PCGs cardiac cycles decomposed into four frequency bands. The final decision rule to classify normal/abnormal heart sounds was based on an ensemble of classifiers combining the outputs of AdaBoost and the CNN. The algorithm was trained on a training dataset (normal= 2575, abnormal= 665) and evaluated on a blind test dataset. Our classifier ensemble approach obtained the highest score of the competition with a sensitivity, specificity, and overall score of 0.9424, 0.7781, and 0.8602, respectively.
IntroductionHeart auscultation is the primary tool for screening and diagnosis in primary health care [1]. Availability of digital stethoscopes and mobile devices provides clinicians an opportunity to record and analyze heart sounds (PCG) for diagnostic purposes. The goal of the 2016 PhysioNet/CinC Challenge is the development of algorithms to classify normal/abnormal heart sound recordings [2]. We proposed an ensemble of a feature-based classifier and a deep learningbased classifier to boost the classification performance of heart sounds.
Method and MaterialA block diagram of the proposed approach to classify normal/abnormal PCG is shown in Fig. 1.
Challenge DatabaseThe challenge database provided PCG recordings of healthy subjects and pathological patients collected at either a clinical or non-clinical environment. Details about the challenge dataset can be found in [2]. For algorithm development, in-house training and test sets were generated by randomly taking 80% and 20% of the records from each database, while keeping the same prevalence of abnormal classes. In-house training set was used for training and cross-validation of different models, and in-house test set was used for evaluation of the classification performance independently from the blind test dataset.
Pre-processingEach PCG was resampled to 1000 Hz, band-pass filtered between 25 Hz and 400 Hz, and then pre-processed to remove any spikes in the PCG [3]. Furthermore, preprocessed PCGs were segmented into four heart sound states using a segmentation method proposed by Springer et al. [4]. Each PCG is comprised of more than one cardiac cycle (beat), and each beat is comprised of four heart sound states (i.e. S1, systole, S2, and diastole).
Feature-based ApproachIn this approach, a variant of AdaBoost classifier [5] was trained for classification of normal/abnormal PCGs using time and frequency-domain features.
Time-domain FeaturesMean and standard deviation (SD) of the following parameters were used as time-domain features (36 features): 1. PCG intervals: RR intervals, S1 intervals, S2 intervals, systolic intervals, diastolic intervals, ratio of systolic interval to RR interval of each heart beat, ratio of diastolic...