PulseNet: Deep Learning ECG-signal classification using random augmentation policy and continous wavelet transform for canines

Evaluating canine electrocardiograms (ECG) require skilled veterinarians, but current availability of veterinary cardiologists for ECG interpretation and diagnostic support is limited. Developing tools for automated assessment of ECG sequences can improve veterinary care by providing clinicians real-time results and decision support tools. We implement a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) approach for classifying canine electrocardiogram sequences as either normal or abnormal. ECG records are converted into 8 second Lead II sequences and classified as either normal (no evidence of cardiac abnormalities) or abnormal (presence of one or more cardiac abnormalities). For training ECG sequences are randomly augmented using RandomAugmentECG, a new augmentation library implemented specifically for this project. Each chunk is then is converted using a continuous wavelet transform into a 2D scalogram. The 2D scalogram are then classified as either normal or abnormal by a binary CNN classifier. Experimental results are validated against three boarded veterinary cardiologists achieving an AUC-ROC score of 0.9506 on test dataset matching human level performance. Additionally, we describe model deployment to Microsoft Azure using an MLOps approach. To our knowledge, this work is one of the first attempts to implement a deep learning model to automatically classify ECG sequences for canines.Implementing automated ECG classification will enhance veterinary care through improved diagnostic performance and increased clinic efficiency.