A Signal Analysis Framework for Unshielded Room-Temperature Magnetocardiography

Abstract

Room-temperature, unshielded recording of cardiac magnetic signals has remained a significant challenge since the inception of magnetocardiography (MCG). In this work, we present an MCG system based on optically pumped magnetometers (OPMs) designed to operate in ambient magnetic environments and acquire adult human cardiac magnetic fields, without the need for active or passive shielding. The system operates in a gradiometer configuration, achieving background-noise cancellation with a common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 31 dB and a gradient sensitivity of 314 $\mathrm{fT/cm/\sqrt{Hz}}$. MCG signals were acquired sequentially at 16 locations across the anterior thorax, and a comprehensive signal-analysis framework incorporating wavelet multiscale principal component analysis (WMSPCA) filtering and signal quality estimation (SQE) scoring was developed to enhance signal quality. This framework yielded a QRS complex signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of $28.56 \pm 5.61$ dB across all measurement locations. These results demonstrate the feasibility of performing clinical-grade MCG in unshielded, real-world magnetic environments, with consistent morphological fidelity across the QRS complex and T-wave segments. This work represents a meaningful step toward the practical deployment of OPM-based MCG systems in hospital and point-of-care settings.