SYSTEM AND METHOD OF NOISE REDUCTION IN AN ELECTROCARDIOLOGY STUDY

• US 20120323132A1
• Filed: 09/29/2011
• Published: 12/20/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: General Electric Company
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Warner, Adrian F., Mejia, Claudio P., Schneidewend, Daniel R., Stiemke, Timothy P., Schmit, Rodger F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,554,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 600/523
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/318 Heart-related electrical modalities, e.g. electrocardiography [ECG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7203 for noise prevention, reduction or removal
• CPC Class Codes: G16H 40/63 for local operation

Abstract

A system to use in combination with an ECG signal acquisition system connected to an arrangement of electrodes on a subject is provided. The system can include an antenna system in communication with the ECG signal acquisition system, a location tracking system operable to track a direction and a location of the antenna system relative to a reference, and an interface connected in communication with the ECG signal acquisition system and the location tracking system. The interface includes an output indicative of a direction of a source of the noise signal detected by the antenna system. A filter reduces an effect of the noise signal on an acquired ECG waveform data received by the ECG signal acquisition system.

Claims

1. A system to use in combination with an ECG signal acquisition system connected to an arrangement of electrodes on a subject, the system comprising:

an antenna system in communication with the ECG signal acquisition system;

a location tracking system operable to track a direction and a location of the antenna system relative to a reference; and

an interface connected in communication with the ECG signal acquisition system and the location tracking system, the interface including an output indicative of a direction of a source of the noise signal detected by the antenna system, wherein a filter reduces an effect of the noise signal on an acquired ECG waveform data received by the ECG signal acquisition system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the system automatically identifies the filter to reduce the effect of the noise signal on the acquired ECG waveform data received by the ECG signal acquisition system, wherein the interface includes a graphic illustration of the identification of the filter to reduce the effect of the noise signal.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the filter includes at least one adaptive filter defined by at least one unique coefficient to reduce an effect of noise signals at different frequencies, and wherein the system automatically calculates the at least one unique coefficient for each adaptive filter to reduce effects of different noise signals on the acquired ECG waveform data received by the ECG signal acquisition system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system detects and generates a graphic illustration of a direction and an amplitude of a source of the noise signal for illustration on display of the user interface relative to a reference, and wherein the system automatically detects at least one electrode from the set of all electrodes attached at the subject of closest proximity to the direction of the source of the noise signal.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the system automatically selects the filter to be applied to the ECG waveform data acquired from the at least one electrode, but not to be applied to ECG waveform data acquired from a remainder of the electrodes that does not include the at least one electrode.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface includes a display having a graphic illustration associated with a unique filter to reduce the effects of different noise signals on the ECG waveform data acquired from the plurality electrodes, and further including a graphic illustration of a classification of the noise having a graphic design of the graphic illustration of one of the filters calculated by the system to reduce the effects of the noise signal on the ECG waveform data.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface includes a display having a graphic illustration indicative of selected electrodes from the plurality of electrodes that the system automatically selected to apply the filter to best reduce the effects of the noise signal on the acquisition of the ECG waveform data from the subject.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the interface includes a display with a graphic illustration of an alert of detection of the noise signal by the system and a graphic illustration indicative an automatic application of the filter by the system to reduce the effects of the noise signal on the ECG waveform data acquired from the subject.

9. The system of claim 8, further including a graphic illustration of the ECG waveform data acquired from each electrode such that a user in general real-time views selective application of the filter on the ECG waveform data acquired from each electrode in response to instructions received from the user.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the system detects and generates a graphic illustration of a direction and an amplitude for each of a plurality of sources of noise signals for illustration on display of the user interface relative to a reference, each graphic illustration of direction and amplitude having a unique identifier such as a color or graphic design.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna system includes a circuit board having a unique alignment to define a direction relative to a reference with moving of the circuit board in a define space where the subject is located.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna system includes an unterminated input having a lead wire extending in a direction in general parallel alignment to a leg of the subject.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the antenna system is embedded in a table in support of the patient.

14. A method of acquisition of an ECG waveform data from a subject with an ECG signal acquisition system having at least one electrode attached at the subject, the method comprising the steps of:

sampling the noise signal detected by the antenna system;

automatically detecting a direction of the source of noise relative to an alignment of the subject; and

automatically calculating a nearest electrode from the plurality of electrodes that is proximate to the direction of the source of noise signal and identifying a filter to reduce attenuation to the ECG waveform data caused by the source of noise signal.

15. The method of claim 14, further including the step of:

automatically calculating a filter coefficient of an algorithm in general real-time for the filter and applying the filter to the ECG waveform data from the subject so as to reduce the effects of the noise signal from at least one of the plurality of electrodes.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the filter is one of an adaptive filter and a non-adaptive filter.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the filter includes a first adapter filter to reduce an effects of a first noise signal originating from an alternating current (AC) source, and a second adaptive filter to reduce an effect of a second noise signal originating from an inductive load.

18. The method of claim 14, further including the step of applying a first and second filters each having a unique algorithm defined to reduce an effect of noise signals at different frequencies, and wherein the system automatically calculates the coefficients of each unique algorithm to reduce effects of different noise signals on the acquired ECG waveform data received by the ECG signal acquisition system.

19. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of creating a graphic illustration on a display indicative of a selected electrode from the plurality of electrodes for applying the filter to cause a greatest amount of reduction of the noise signal identified in the acquisition of the ECG waveform data from the subject.

20. The method of claim 14, further including the steps of detecting and generating a graphic illustration of a direction and an amplitude for each of a plurality of sources of noise signals for illustration on a display at the user interface relative to a reference, each graphic illustration of the direction and the amplitude having a unique identifier.