SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SIGNAL QUALITY INDICATION AND FALSE ALARM REDUCTION IN ECG MONITORING SYSTEMS

• US 20100022903A1
• Filed: 07/28/2008
• Published: 01/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Sitzman, David A., Genc, Sahika, Johnson, Timothy L., Treacy, Stephen T.
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,482 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/509
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/316 Modalities, i.e. specific diagnostic methods
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/346 Analysis of electrocardiograms
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7217 of noise originating from a therapeutic or surgical apparatus, e.g. from a pacemaker
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7221 Determining signal validity, reliability or quality A61B5/7207 and A61B5/7217 take precedence

Abstract

An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system configured to determine an index that comprises a set of indicators, where each indicator is indicative of a level of signal quality in an ECG lead. Further, the ECG monitoring system assigns a first indicator from the set of indicators to a first ECG lead signal and communicates the first indicator to a user.

Claims

1. An electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system configured to:

determine an index that comprises a set of indicators, each indicator indicative of a level of signal quality in a signal from an ECG lead;

assign a first indicator from the set of indicators to a first ECG lead signal; and

communicate the first indicator to a user.

2. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the set of indicators is one of a number scale, a color spectrum, and an audible signal.

3. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to:

assign a second indicator from the set of indicators to multiple ECG lead signals, wherein the second indicator is indicative of an overall quality of the multiple ECG leads; and

communicate the second indicator to the user.

4. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to remove a pacemaker-induced signal from the first ECG lead signal.

5. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to extract noise from the first ECG lead signal, and wherein the assignment of the first indicator is based on the extracted noise.

6. The ECG monitoring system of claim 5 wherein the extracted noise is substantially free of single-subject normal ECG amplitude variance contributions.

7. The ECG monitoring system of claim 5 wherein the extracted noise is substantially free of signal contributions from premature ventricular contractions and ventricular ectopic beats.

8. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to account for subject-to-subject variances.

9. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to communicate a trend of signal quality to the user, wherein the trend is indicative of a level of signal quality over time.

10. The ECG monitoring system of claim 9 further configured to communicate to the user that a lead failure event is likely to occur based on the trend of the signal quality.

11. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 further configured to determine that an alarm generated by the ECG monitoring system is a false alarm, wherein the determination that the alarm is a false alarm is based on the first indicator.

12. The ECG monitoring system of claim 1 wherein the system is further configured to determine a beat location in the first ECG lead signal.

13. A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program comprising instructions which when executed by a computing device cause the computing device to:

evaluate noise in a first electrocardiogram (ECG) lead signal;

assign a first value from a quality index to the evaluated noise; and

indicate the first value to a user.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the first value is indicated via one of a symbol on a computer screen, a color in a color spectrum, and an audible signal.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further caused to:

evaluate noise in an additional ECG lead signal; and

assign a second value from the quality index to the noise in the additional ECG lead signal.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further caused to:

evaluate noise in multiple ECG lead signals;

assign a second value to the evaluated noise; and

store the second value in the computer memory.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further caused to pass the first ECG lead signal through a low-pass frequency filter such that at least a portion of the noise is extracted from the ECG lead signal.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further caused to pass the first ECG lead signal through a high-pass frequency filter such that at least a second portion of the noise is extracted from the ECG lead signal.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further caused to:

extract a first heart beat signal from the first ECG lead signal;

extract a second heart beat signal from the first ECG lead signal; and

create an ECG lead signal template based on the first and second heart beat signals.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the computing device is further caused to determine a difference between the ECG lead signal template and a portion of the first ECG lead signal such that at least a third portion of the noise is extracted from the first ECG lead signal.

21. A method of assessing an alarm from an electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring system comprising:

determining a condition of an ECG lead;

assigning a symbol indicative of the condition of the ECG lead; and

assessing the alarm from the ECG system based on the symbol.

22. The method of claim 21 further comprising:

indicating to a user that the condition of the ECG lead has one of decreased over time, increased over time, and remained constant over time.