The main goal of any electrocardiogram (EGG) compression algorithm is
to reduce the bit rate while keeping the signal distortion at a clinic
ally acceptable level, Percentage root mean square difference (PRD), t
he commonly used figure of merit, does not directly reveal whether the
clinically significant ECG waveform information is preserved or not,
We present the results of a study of ECG compression using an upper bo
und on the PRD, This bound is based on the initial performance of the
algorithm and could be specified by the clinician after correlating th
e quality of the compressed versions of the ECG and the resulting PRD.