On the use of PRD and CR parameters for ECG compression

The quality measurement of the reconstructed signal in an electrocardiogram (ECG) compression scheme must be obtained by objective means being the percentage root-mean-square difference (PRD) the most widely used. However, this parameter is dependent on the dc level so that confusion can be stated in the evaluation of ECG compressors. In this communication, it will be shown that if the performance of an ECG coder is evaluated only in terms of quality, considering exclusively the PRD parameter, incorrect conclusions can be inferred. The objective of this work is to propose the joint use of several parameters, as simulations will show, effectiveness and performance of the ECG coder are evaluated with more precision, and the way of inferring conclusions from the obtained results is more reliable.