Time-Frequency-Domain Deep Learning Framework for the Automated Detection of Heart Valve Disorders Using PCG Signals

The damage to the heart valves causes heart valve disorders (HVDs). The detection of HVDs is crucial in a clinical study as these diseases may cause congestive heart failure, hypertrophy, and stroke. The phonocardiogram (PCG) signal reveals information regarding the mechanical activity of the heart. The early detection of HVDs using PCG signal is vital to minimize the chances of cardiac arrest and other cardiac complications. This article proposes the time-frequency-domain deep learning (TFDDL) framework for automatic detection of HVDs using PCG signals. The time-frequency (TF)-domain representations of PCG signals are evaluated using both time-domain polynomial chirplet transform (TDPCT) and frequency-domain polynomial chirplet transform (FDPCT). The deep convolutional neural network (CNN) model is used to detect four types of HVDs using the TF images of PCG signals obtained using both the TDPCT and FDPCT methods. The proposed TFDDL approach is evaluated using PCG signals from public databases. For the detection of HVDs using TDPCT- and FDPCT-based TF images of PCG signals, the suggested approach has achieved overall accuracy values of 99% and 99.48%, respectively. For the classification of normal and abnormal heart sound classes, the proposed TFDDL approach has obtained an accuracy of 85.16% using PCG signals from the Physionet challenge 2016 database. The proposed TFDDL framework is compared with TF-domain transfer learning models such as residual network (ResNet-50) and visual geometry group (VGGNet-16). The overall accuracy values obtained using VGGNet-16 and ResNet-50 are less than the proposed deep CNN model for the detection of HVDs. The proposed TFDDL model can be validated in real-time using heart sound signals recorded from different subjects for automated identification of HVDs.