Mobile three-lead cardiac monitoring device and method for automated diagnostics

Abstract

Methods and apparatuses, including devices and systems, for remote and detection and/or diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). In particular, described herein are handheld devices having an electrode configuration capable of recording three orthogonal ECG lead signals in an orientation-specific manner, and transmitting these signals to a processor. The processor may be remote or local, and it may automatically or semi-automatically detect AMI, atrial fibrillation or other heart disorders based on the analyses of the deviation of the recorded 3 cardiac signals with respect to previously stored baseline recordings.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for automated ECG diagnostics, the method comprising:
 placing a device comprising a housing having four integrated electrodes arranged to measure three orthogonal leads from a patient's chest and hands against the subject's chest in a first recording position;   acquiring a first 3 lead ECG recording from the device at a first time;   communicating the first 3 lead ECG recording to a processor;   storing the first 3 lead ECG recording as baseline recording;   placing the device against the subject's chest in a second recording position;   acquiring a second 3 lead ECG recording from the device at a second time;   communicating the second 3 lead ECG recording to the processor;   pre-processing the first and second 3 lead ECG recordings in the processor to eliminate power line interference, baseline wandering and muscle noise, obtain a representative beat using fiducial points and median beat procedure, and to check for switching of the left and right finger;   performing beat alignment in the processor to bring representative beats from the first and second 3 lead ECG recordings in a same time frame so that corresponding points are synchronized;   compensating for chest electrode miss-positioning between the first and second recording positions in the processor by compensating a heart electrical axis deviation in a 3 ECG leads vector space;   calculating a difference signal representing the change between the first and second 3 ECG leads recordings;   detecting ECG changes suggesting ischemia by comparing parameters of the first and second 3 lead ECG recording or by comparing parameters of the difference signal to a predefined threshold;   communicating any ECG changes suggesting ischemia from the device to the patient.