BRAVEHEART: Open-Source Software for Automated Electrocardiographic and Vectorcardiographic Analysis
Hans Fredrich Stabenau, MD, PhD & Jonathan W. Waks, MD
Harvard-Thorndike Electrophysiology Institute, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
braveheart.ecg@gmail.com
BRAVEHEART (Beth Israel Analysis of Vectors of the Heart) is a modular, customizable, open-source software package for processing electrocardiograms (ECGs) and vectorcardiograms (VCGs) for research purposes.
BRAVEHEART was built using MATLAB and requires a version after R2022a (http://www.mathworks.com) as well as the following toolboxes to run via source code:
- Wavelet toolbox
- Signal processing toolbox
- Deep learning toolbox
- Parallel computing toolbox (optional)
For users without access to MATLAB or all required toolboxes, we have also provided executables for Windows and Mac operating systems that can be run without needing MATLAB installed.
The most up to date version of the software can be found on GitHub at http://www.github.com/BIVectors/BRAVEHEART, where the software, source code, and executables for Windows and Mac are available under version 3 of the General Public License (GPL) (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html).
Copyright 2016-2024 Jonathan W. Waks and Hans F. Stabenau
All rights reserved.
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/ or the LICENSE file included in this repository.
A detailed user guide that covers installation and use of the software, including a quick start guide and examples of ECG/VCG processing, is available in the file braveheart_userguide.pdf.
A manuscript describing the software methods in detail is available in the file braveheart_methods.pdf and as a manuscript in Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2023.107798).
If the GUI is not displaying completely first check that your monitor resolution is at least 1920 x 1080. If your monitor resolution is adequate but the GUI is still not fully displaying, your computer display settings likely have some form of scaling turned on; this setting increases the size of text to improve readability, but also effectively reduces the screen resolution. Instructions for how to disable this setting can be found below or in the user guide section 29.1:
To disable screen scaling:
- Windows 10: Open the Ease of Access settings with Windows key + U. Under Make everything bigger on the Display tab, change to 100%.
- Windows 11: Open Settings and then Display. Under Scale & layout, expand the Scale menu and change to 100%.
- Mac OS: Open System Preferences and then Display. Choose Scaled Resolution and then More Space
BRAVEHEART can read a wide variety of 12-lead ECG formats including:
- GE MUSE XML
- Philips XML
- HL7 XML
- DICOM
- ISHNE
- GE Marquette ASCII
- Cardiosoft XML
- Schiller XML
- SCP-ECG
- EDF
- Physionet .dat
- Physionet .csv
- GE Prucka
- Abbott Workmate Claris ASCII
- Unformatted .txt and .csv
If you need BRAVEHEART to read another ECG format let us know and we will help add it.
Please include the link to this GitHub repository and cite our manuscript in Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine. The upper right section of this repository has a CITATION file that will provide the appropriate references which are also reproduced here:
Stabenau, HF and Waks, JW. BRAVEHEART: Open-source software for automated electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic analysis. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. Volume 242, Dec 2023, 107798. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2023.107798
Bibtex:
@Article{BRAVEHEART,
Author="Stabenau, H. F. and Waks, J. W. ",
Title="{{B}{R}{A}{V}{E}{H}{E}{A}{R}{T}: {O}pen-source software for automated electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic analysis}",
Journal="Comput Methods Programs Biomed",
Year="2023",
Volume="242",
Pages="107798",
Month="Dec",
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmpb.2023.107798}
}
The software has been used for ECG/VCG analysis in the following publications:
If you have used BRAVEHEART for your research project we would be happy to include a reference to your manuscript!
Please contact the authors by email at braveheart.ecg@gmail.com if you are interested in contributing to the project.