Method and apparatus for screening electrocardiographic (ECG) data
First Claim
1. An apparatus used to provide for automatic screening of recorded electrocardiographic (ECG) signals to identify recordings containing no clinically significant abnormalities thereby eliminating those ECG recordings from the requirement of being manually analyzed, consisting of:
- computational means, said computational means including playback means capable of inputting recorded ECG signals as a set of digital ECG signals that can be assessed by said computational means;
means for arrhythmia analyzing, contained within said computational means, capable of taking said set of digital ECG signals to provide, therefrom, assessments of said recorded ECG data as being a member of one of a group of categories, said group of categories including a ventricular ectopic, a superventricular ectopic, an ST index, an artifact, or an unknown;
accumulation means contained within said computational means to store a total number of occurrences of each of said categories;
means responsive to said accumulation means for automatically detecting significant abnormalities in said digital ECG signals, and responding thereto.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A time saving automatic screening system for detection, measurement, analysis and plotting of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals employing arrhythmia analysis programs on long term ambulatory (Holter) recordings to assess the ECG signals and categorize the recorded data as either artifact, ventricular ectopic, superventricular ectopic, unknown or normal and to calculate a level of confidence that the category as chosen is a correct assessment. A system is disclosed that thresholds the occurrences of each category as well as the level of confidence to determine if significant abnormalities have occurred in the recording process, the hearts arrhythmia, or the heartbeat morphology. The method and apparatus disclosed make it possible to identify and screen out entire long term (Holter) ECG recordings containing no significant abnormalities in the hearts arrhythmia or the beat morphology. Thus, the cost of Holter scanning is greatly reduced by reserving for manual scanning only those recordings that contain significant abnormalities in the hearts arrhythmia or the beat morphology.
156 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An apparatus used to provide for automatic screening of recorded electrocardiographic (ECG) signals to identify recordings containing no clinically significant abnormalities thereby eliminating those ECG recordings from the requirement of being manually analyzed, consisting of:
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computational means, said computational means including playback means capable of inputting recorded ECG signals as a set of digital ECG signals that can be assessed by said computational means; means for arrhythmia analyzing, contained within said computational means, capable of taking said set of digital ECG signals to provide, therefrom, assessments of said recorded ECG data as being a member of one of a group of categories, said group of categories including a ventricular ectopic, a superventricular ectopic, an ST index, an artifact, or an unknown; accumulation means contained within said computational means to store a total number of occurrences of each of said categories; means responsive to said accumulation means for automatically detecting significant abnormalities in said digital ECG signals, and responding thereto. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
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6. A method of automatically screening recorded electrocardiographic data to eliminate recordings not containing clinically significant abnormalities without requiring manual inspection comprising the steps of:
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providing recorded ECG data as a set of digital ECG signals into a digital computer to be processed; arrhythmia analyzing said set of digital ECG signals to access ECG events, provide for beat detection and obtain a summary view of morphology classification; grouping events from said arrhythmia analyzing by assessing said summary view of morphology classification to create a group of categories, said categories including individual assessments of ECG data being either an artifact, a ventricular ectopic, a superventricular ectopic, or an unknown event; providing for a confidence level that each of said morphology classifications is as classified and said categories are properly grouped; accumulating a total number of occurrences of each of said categories over a predetermined set of time periods; automatically determining whether clinically significant abnormalities are contained within recorded electrocardiographic data by employing means responsive to said total number of occurrences for each said categories within each of said predetermined time periods. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of analyzing recorded electrocardiographic (ECG) signals to determine the presence of clinically significant abnormalities in heart arrhythmia or heartbeat morphology comprising the steps of:
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providing a digital computer with recorded ECG data as a set of digital ECG signals to be used for digital processing; forming vector representations in multidimensional Euclidian space of heart arrhythmia and heartbeat morphology from said recording of digital ECG data; generating a group of categories related to heart arrhythmia and heartbeat morphology from said vector representations; accumulating a set of total occurrences for each of said group of categories over a predetermined set of time intervals; providing a predetermined set of thresholding parameters having members that correspond to those members contained in said set of total occurrences; and comparing said set of total occurrences for each of said categories with said predetermined set of thresholding parameters to determine the presence of clinically significant abnormalities in heart arrhythmia or heartbeat morphology. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A system for analyzing recorded electrocardiographic data to determine the presence of clinically significant data comprising:
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a digital computer having loading means, said loading means capable of individual insertion and removal, of each of a plurality of patient recordings into said digital computer; digitizing means, contained within said computer, capable of making data from said patient recordings available to said digital computer in a digital format; means for digitally processing said patient recordings in said digital format, contained within said digital computer, said means for digitally processing capable of performing an arrhythmia analysis; means for categorizing results achieved through said arrhythmia analysis; means responsive to said means for categorizing for automatically determining which of said plurality of patient recordings contain no clinically significant data and, therefore, may be excused from the requirement of manual analysis. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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Specification