System and method for electrocardiographic data signal gain determination with the aid of a digital computer

摘要

In one embodiment, ECG data collected during the long-term monitoring are compressed through a two-step compression algorithm executed by an electrocardiography monitor. Minimum amplitude signals may become indistinguishable from noise if overly inclusive encoding is employed in which voltage ranges are set too wide. The resulting ECG signal will appear “choppy” and uneven with an abrupt slope. The encoding used in the first stage of compression can be dynamically rescaled on-the-fly when the granularity of the encoding is too coarse. In a further embodiment, offloaded ECG signals are automatically gained as appropriate on a recording-by-recording basis to preserve the amplitude relationship between the signals. Raw decompressed ECG signals are filtered for noise content and any gaps in the signals are bridged. An appropriate signal gain is determined based on a statistical evaluation of peak-to-peak voltage (or other indicator) to land as many ECG waveforms within a desired range of display.

主权项

1. A method for electrocardiographic data signal gain determination with the aid of a digital computer, comprising the steps of:
receiving, by a download station from an ambulatory monitor recorder interfaced to the download station, compression codes representing cutaneous action potentials recorded by the monitor recorder; decompressing by the download station the compression codes into a time series that comprises a digital representation of a raw electrocardiography (“ECG”) signal; identifying by the download station cardiac waveforms within the time series falling within one or more temporal windows and measuring peak-to-peak voltages in the identified cardiac waveforms; and statistically representing a correlation between the peak-to-peak voltages on the download station and determining based on the statistical representation a signal gain that places the correlation between the peak-to-peak voltages within a range preferred for visualizing the cardiac waveforms.