Last Updated on February 8, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
According to the papers of cardiologist Dr. Milind Desai from Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, 3 lead ECG devices are gold standard for HR measurements for cardiologists. This make sense. ECG signals are sharper than PPG signals, and can therefore be detected more accurately by peak detection algorithms. Furthermore, 3 lead ECG devices which make 3 measurements which are independent from each other, are more accurate than single lead ECG devices.
In the papers about commercially available HRM devices for athletes, the group of Dr. Desai used a clinical grade ECG device as a reference:
In their tests of HRM for athletes, a cardiologist stood next to the treadmill, and checked every single ECG peak by eye during the experiments. Was this done to reach maximal accuracy? We suppose so. What can be more accurate than this method?
The same applies to respiratory rate estimation which is based on ECG peaks. If we choose a 3 lead ECG device, and optimize the accuracy of the device, we should also reach maximal accuracy for respiratory rate estimation.
Do we therefore need more than a highly accurate 3 lead ECG device, and Talha Iqbals Python examples on YouTube? Yes, we need more. We need to study the literature about this topic and understand it.