High resolution electrocardiograph based on UM232R interface

Some cardiac signal components are fragmented, attenuated and delayed when an infarct occurs in the ventricles. These micropotentials are called ventricular late potentials (VLPs) and normally appear in the end of the QRS complex and/or at the beginning of ST segment. VLPs have been used to detect sudden cardiac death risk in postinfarcted patients. Due to their very low amplitudes, late potentials are not visible in a standard electrocardiogram (ECG). Moreover, factors such as increased distance of the body surface electrodes from the heart, and inherent noise in patients make identification of VLPs beyond the resolution limits of a standard ECG. As a result, high-resolution recording techniques and computerized ECG processing are necessary for VLPs detection. In this work a high resolution electrocardiograph (HREKG) has being developing. The HREKG is connected by a UM232R interface that allows converting RS232 to USB communication protocol, and uses a graphic environment for signals averaging to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the high resolution ECG signals recorded. The developing of this HREKG will permit to build data bases to study sudden cardiac death risk in local post-infarcted subjects.