A Paralleled Multi-Task Learning-Based Framework for Single-Lead ECG Fine-Grained Noise Localization, Denoising and Signal Quality Assessment

Abstract

Wearable ECG monitoring devices have become indispensable in personalized healthcare. However, dynamic signal acquisition during daily activities often introduces transient noise, which complicates signal classification and denoising, and may compromise diagnostic reliability. To address this challenge, this study proposes an ECG preprocessing framework based on multi-task learning, in which a fine-grained noise localization task is introduced to guide and assist both ECG signal quality assessment and denoising. Built upon a Transformer backbone and optimized with three task-specific loss functions, the proposed model leveraged weak supervision and pathological ECG data to learn robust noise-invariant representations. This design incorporates intra-class awareness, enabling the model to overcome various noise within the same quality category and to perform adaptive denoising beyond conventional inter-class-based approaches. Extensive experiments demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in both denoising and quality assessment, with weighted average F1-scores ranging from 95.72% to 98.49% and classification accuracy exceeding 95.68%. Moreover, under extremely severe noise conditions, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is improved from −1.95 ± 3.83 dB to 12.20 ± 2.51 dB while preserving waveform fidelity. After pruning and quantization, the model could be effectively compressed, thereby enhancing its suitability for real-time deployment in edge computing scenarios. Overall, the proposed method not only preserved diagnostically important ECG waveforms and provided interpretable noise localization but also offers an efficient and clinically relevant solution for large-scale, real-time ECG monitoring.