PathFusion-Net: A Rough Path Theory-Based Deep Learning Model for ECG Arrhythmia Classification

This study introduces a novel electrocardiogram (ECG) arrhythmia classification model, PathFusion-Net, which integrates Rough Path Theory with deep learning technologies. The model combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Path Signatures, and Path Development to extract spatial morphological features from ECG images and multi-order temporal representations from ECG signals. By adopting an inter-patient split paradigm, our approach more closely reflects real-world clinical diagnostic settings compared to intra-patient methods. The model demonstrates state-of-the-art overall classification performance on both the MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database and a private clinical dataset, achieving 94.7% and 95.1% accuracy, respectively, under the AAMI four-class standard with an inter-patient split paradigm. On the MIT-BIH dataset, the proposed method attains competitive precision and recall across multiple arrhythmia types, including 95.2%/87.9% for ventricular ectopic beats (V) and 75.7%/92.3% for supraventricular ectopic beats (S), indicating balanced performance across clinically diverse categories. This research highlights the potential of Rough Path Theory in time-series analysis and offers a novel deep learning framework for automated early detection and monitoring of ECG arrhythmias.