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Practice/Biomedical
Instrumentation/Electrocardiography
This chapter should cover the basics of ECG systems from
a design point of view; not from a diagnosis point of view.
Physiological Background
QRS
Complex
ST
Segment
PR
Segment
PR Interval
Q
S
QT Interval
By measuring and tracing the potential dierence between two points on the outer surface of the body we 2 Design of a Basic ECG Signal Acobtain the simplest ECG chart. Two typical measuring
quisition Module
points between the left arm and the right arm. By dening the two points and setting up the conventional posi- The acquisition of the ECG signal is a rather challengtive direction for measuring the voltage, we create what ing task, as the case with many biological signals. ECG
is called a Lead.
voltage signal is very low in magnitude (few millivolts)
The rst phase of the cardiac muscle activation is the and has relatively low frequency content. The expected
stimulation of the right and left atria by an electrical sig- bandwidth of the signal typically begins from 0.01 Hz and
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8 FURTHER READING
In this section, we are NOT going to consider the full design of the ECG signal; rather, we shall focus on a minimal
ECG acquisition module design that would just work.
This section should discuss theoretical signal processing
solutions to the above artifacts
Patient
Dierence Amplier
A VERY simplied block diagram of an ECG amplier. The voltage of the right arm (w.r.t right leg) is subtracted from the voltage
of the left arm (w.r.t right leg) to get the ECG Lead I signal).
Signal Artifacts
Baseline Wander where the ECG waveform baseline starts to drift up and down in a sinusoidal pattern
following the patient breathing
TI app note Biophysical Monitoring: Electrocardiogram (ECG) Front End has a simple circuit: 390
KOhm resistors in-line with each lead -- one end
touches patient, the other end directly connected to
the instrumentation amp input (or the right-leg drive
amplier output, which has no further protection).
The inst. amp has 2 protection diodes on each input, directly to +power and -power. Also, 39 pF capacitor from each input to analog GND, and 200 pF
between the 2 inputs. The TI publication Information for Medical Applications (2Q 2004) reprints
that circuit, but leaves out the caps and the diodes.
EMG Interference where muscle contraction signals interfere with the ECG.
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High-Resolution QRS Detection Algorithm for
Sparsely Sampled ECG Recordings by Timo
Bragge et al. 2004 recommends: the sampling frequency of the ECG should be at least 500 Hz
Low-Power, Low-Voltage IC Choices for ECG
System Requirements by Jon Firth and Paul Errico
says The multiplexed architecture, based on an
old assumption that the converter is by far the
most-expensive front-end component, is prevalent in
todays electrophysiological measurement systems.
However, with the proliferation of sigma-delta converter architectures, converter-per-channel is now
a power- and cost-competitive alternative. It also
gives a typical schematic for both architectures and
suggests some parts.
Is there a Medical Electronics Forum?
Make: Homemade Electrocardiograph ( recommends skin lotion or shampoo as a low-cost electrode gel)
References
Please cite all the references you have used. See the Local
Manual of Style for examples on citations.
[1] Clinical Electrocardiography, a Simplied Approach.
Seventh Edition; Ary L. Goldberger, Mosby-Elsevier,
2006
[2] Takla G, Petre JH, Doyle DJ, Horibe M, Gopakumaran
B. The problem of artifacts in patient monitor data during surgery: a clinical and methodological review. Anesth
Analg. 2006;103(5):1196-204
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