A comparison of methods to suppress electrocardiographic artifacts in local field potential recordings

M J Stam; B C M van Wijk; P Sharma; M Beudel; D A Piña-Fuentes; R M A de Bie; P R Schuurman; W-J Neumann; A W G Buijink

doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2022.11.011

A comparison of methods to suppress electrocardiographic artifacts in local field potential recordings

Clin Neurophysiol. 2023 Feb:146:147-161. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2022.11.011. Epub 2022 Dec 2.

Authors

M J Stam¹, B C M van Wijk², P Sharma³, M Beudel¹, D A Piña-Fuentes¹, R M A de Bie¹, P R Schuurman⁴, W-J Neumann⁵, A W G Buijink⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
² Department of Neurology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Human Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Movement Disorder and Neuromodulation Unit, Department of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Otto von Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany.
⁴ Department of Neurosurgery, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Movement Disorder and Neuromodulation Unit, Department of Neurology, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ Department of Neurology, Amsterdam University Medical Centers, Amsterdam Neuroscience, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: a.w.buijink@amsterdamumc.nl.

PMID: 36543611
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2022.11.011

Abstract

Objective: Local field potential (LFP) recordings from deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes are often contaminated with electrocardiographic (ECG) artifacts that hinder the detection of disease-specific electrical brain activity.

Methods: Three ECG suppression methods were evaluated: (1) QRS interpolation of the Perceive toolbox, (2) template subtraction, and (3) singular value decomposition (SVD). LFPs were recorded with the Medtronic Percept^TM PC system in nine Parkinson's disease patients with stimulation OFF ("OFF-DBS"; anode disconnected) and ON at 0 mA ("ON-DBS 0 mA"; anode connected). Findings were verified with simulated ECG-contaminated time series.

Results: ECG artifacts were present in 10 out of 18 ON-DBS 0 mA recordings. All ECG suppression methods drastically reduced artifact-induced beta band (13-35 Hz) power and at least partly recovered the beta peak and beta burst dynamics. Using external ECG recordings and lengthening artifact epoch length improved the performance of the suppression methods. Increasing epoch length, however, elevated the risk of flattening the beta peak and losing beta burst dynamics.

Conclusions: The SVD method formed the preferred trade-off between artifact cleaning and signal loss, as long as its parameter settings are adequately chosen.

Significance: ECG suppression methods enable analysis of disease-specific neural activity from signals affected by ECG artifacts.

Keywords: Artifacts; Beta; ECG; Local field potentials; Parkinson’s disease.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Artifacts
Deep Brain Stimulation* / methods
Electrocardiography
Electrodes
Humans
Parkinson Disease* / diagnosis
Parkinson Disease* / therapy