A Minicomputer System for Direct High Speed Analysis of Cardiac Arrhythmia in 24 h Ambulatory ECG Tape Recordings

A minicomputer system for the analysis of 24 h ambulatory ECG tapes at 60 times real time is presented. The unique aspect of the system is its implementation entirely in software on a single standard minicomputer system. The high scanning speed is achieved by a very efficient ectopic beat detection algorithm and a partition of the software into two phases. An on-line phase builds a reduced file of ectopic beats, which is then submitted to an off-line phase for beat classification and report generation. The entire analysis of a 24 h tape is completed in less than 30 min and requires only initialization by an operator.