What is Heart Rate Variability (HRV)

In this chapter, the field of computer-aided diagnosis of cardiacdiac arrhythmias is reviewed, methodologies are presented, and current trends are discussed. Cardiac arrhythmia is one of the leading causes of death in many countries worldwide. According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the cause of death of millions of people around the globe each year. The large variety and multifaceted nature of cardiac arrhythmias, combined with a wide range of treatments and outcomes, and complex relationships with other diseases, have made diagnosis and optimal treatment of cardiovascular diseases difficult for all but experienced cardiologists. Computer-aided diagnosis of medical deceases is one of the most important research fields in biomedical engineering. Several computer-aided approaches have been presented for automated detection and/or classification of cardiac arrhythmias. In what follows, we present methods reported in the literature in the last two decades that address: (i) the type of the diagnosis, that is, the expected result, (ii) the medical point of view, that is, the medical information and knowledge that is employed in order to reach the diagnosis, and (iii) the computer science point of view, that is, the data analysis techniques that are employed in order to reach the diagnosis.