Continuous monitoring using a predictive instrument

摘要

An instrument for continuously monitoring the condition of a patient who has a cardiovascular disease, the instrument including an electrocardiograph; a waveform analyzer which analyzes a current segment of an ECG waveform; a computer receiving output from the waveform analyzer; and a control module. The computer is programmed to complete a monitoring cycle in which the computer uses the output from the waveform analyzer to compute a probability of a life threatening cardiac condition based upon the current segment of the patient's ECG waveform. The control module causes the computer to periodically repeat the monitoring cycle and for each repetition of said monitoring cycle to compute a change-of-condition measure, wherein the change-of-condition measure is calculated by subtracting a computed probability for a previous monitoring cycle from the computed probability for the current monitoring cycle. The computer is also programmed to compare during each monitoring cycle the computed change-of-condition measure for that monitoring cycle to a threshold value and if in excess of the threshold value to generate an alarm notification.