A 12-lead ECG is a snapshot in time of 3 spatial views of the heart's electrical activity from 12 angles. It is generated by placing 10 electrodes on various parts of the body including the arms, legs, and chest. With a 12-lead, we are simply taking a multi-dimensional picture of heart conduction from right to left, top to bottom, and front to back.
Once the electrodes are placed, the ECG recorder is run. The recorder digitally captures the multi-dimensional picture. Although the machine will virtually record all 10 seconds of data per lead, all traditional ECG print outs and the current pdfs currently used in most mobility solutions only provide 3 seconds of data for each lead, and those three seconds are printed, static, flat, and non-interactive.
The output of an ECG recorder is a tracing on a graph. Time is represented on the x-axis, and voltage, or amplitude is represented on the y-axis. Look at the following picture describing the time and voltage for a traditional ECG tracing. Notice, for example, how one small 1 mm x 1 mm block represents 40 milliseconds in time and 0.1 millivolts in amplitude? (See Figure 1).
Now let’s look at how mobility providers can add serious value to the ECG equation. One way is to mobilize a pdf version of the ECG tracing. (See Figure 2). Helpful - but where is our data transformation in this equation? Consider it’s time to move to the next generation mobile solution. (Figure 3).
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| Figure 1 |
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| Figure 2 |
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| Figure 3 |
AirStrip Cardiology ™ provides the ability to scroll through a full 10-second ECG for all 12 leads and set any of the leads as the rhythm strip – clinicians choose the beats used for analysis. In addition, the dynamic ECG layout functionality grants full control over how leads are rendered, providing the option to see all 12 or 15 leads for the ECG or selectively, in various comparative layouts and zoom levels.
AirStrip Cardiology can help clinicians detect changes in mV signal as low as .05 mV (0.5 mm). That’s a twentyfold increase in amplitude detection over paper tracings. End users clearly see sub-millimeter variations, as well as being able to visually scan all 12- or 15-leads at once and see any relative deviations.
In terms of playback control, marking the grid with the measurements coming from GE Marquette® 12SL™algorithms, we also allow play modes for the 10 second digital segment to be full, 1/2, 1/4, or 1/8 speed, as desired. Added features such as user-driven lead selection, maintaining relevance across leads with synchronized pinch and zoom, make this exponentially more interactive. Now that’s meaningful mobility.
References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ECG_Paper_v2.svg
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:12leadECG.jpg
[3] © 2010. AirStrip Technologies. All rights reserved
