Time–frequency analysis of phonocardiogram signals using wavelet transform: a comparative study

Analysis of phonocardiogram (PCG) signals provides a non-invasive means to determine the abnormalities caused by cardiovascular system pathology. In general, time–frequency representation (TFR) methods are used to study the PCG signal because it is one of the non-stationary bio-signals. The continuous wavelet transform (CWT) is especially suitable for the analysis of non-stationary signals and to obtain the TFR, due to its high resolution, both in time and in frequency and has recently become a favourite tool. It decomposes a signal in terms of elementary contributions called wavelets, which are shifted and dilated copies of a fixed mother wavelet function, and yields a joint TFR. Although the basic characteristics of the wavelets are similar, each type of the wavelets produces a different TFR. In this study, eight real types of the most known wavelets are examined on typical PCG signals indicating heart abnormalities in order to determine the best wavelet to obtain a reliable TFR. For this purpose, the wavelet energy and frequency spectrum estimations based on the CWT and the spectra of the chosen wavelets were compared with the energy distribution and the autoregressive frequency spectra in order to determine the most suitable wavelet. The results show that Morlet wavelet is the most reliable wavelet for the time–frequency analysis of PCG signals.