Abstract :
Electrocardiograms of poor technical quality present challenges to accurate interpretation. Poor technical quality ECGs may result from muscle tremor, AC power inteference, electrode motion, or baseline shifts. A system which assesses the ECG lead quality is described. An analysis algorithm assessed the ECG for artifact nnd assigned the ECG a lead quality level of green (good), yellow (marginal), or red (poor). A totul of 120,698 physician-confinned ECGs were retrospectively analyzed by the lead quality algorithm and the GE Healthcare 12SL analysis program. The discordance rates (percentage of ECGs in which the rhythm from the 12SL analysis differed from the rhythm of the conjhned ECG) were reported by lead qualiry level. While less than 5% of the ECGs were of marginal or poor lend quality, the discordance rute was found tu markedly increase as the lead quality degraded.
