S2M2ECG: Spatio-temporal bi-directional State Space Model Enabled Multi-branch Mamba for ECG

As one of the most effective methods for cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnosis, multi-lead Electrocardiogram (ECG) signals present a characteristic multi-sensor information fusion challenge that has been continuously researched in deep learning domains. Despite the numerous algorithms proposed with different DL architectures, maintaining a balance among performance, computational complexity, and multi-source ECG feature fusion remains challenging. Recently, state space models (SSMs), particularly Mamba, have demonstrated remarkable effectiveness across various fields. Their inherent design for high-efficiency computation and linear complexity makes them particularly suitable for low-dimensional data like ECGs. This work proposes S2M2ECG, an SSM architecture featuring three-level fusion mechanisms: (1) Spatio-temporal bi-directional SSMs with segment tokenization for low-level signal fusion, (2) Intra-lead temporal information fusion with bi-directional scanning to enhance recognition accuracy in both forward and backward directions, (3) Cross-lead feature interaction modules for spatial information fusion. To fully leverage the ECG-specific multi-lead mechanisms inherent in ECG signals, a multi-branch design and lead fusion modules are incorporated, enabling individual analysis of each lead while ensuring seamless integration with others. Experimental results reveal that S2M2ECG achieves superior performance in the rhythmic, morphological, and clinical scenarios. Moreover, its lightweight architecture ensures it has nearly the fewest parameters among existing models, making it highly suitable for efficient inference and convenient deployment. Collectively, S2M2ECG offers a promising alternative that strikes an excellent balance among performance, computational complexity, and ECG-specific characteristics, paving the way for high-performance, lightweight computations in CVD diagnosis.