A portable system for simultaneous acquisition of ECG and PCG in real time

Cardiac malfunctioning is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity today. ECG (Electrocardiogram) and Phonocardiogram, are the two major ways to diagnose the cardiac pathology. ECG can find out defects related to heart electrical activity, Phonocardiogram can find out acoustic information in blood flowing pathway. So, a real time integrated ECG & Phonocardiogram system will give more information about heart. This paper discusses the development of an electronic system that records both electrical activity and heart sounds for better diagnosis of heart pathology. Heart sounds were obtained using a condenser microphone (acted as a transducer) insulated from its surroundings and electrical signals were obtained using surface electrodes. The heart sounds and ECG signals have been amplified and filtered independently of each other. Data acquisition system sends the signals with baud rate of 19200 to the PC. A MATLAB program is written to plot amplitude and powerspectral on a time and frequency varying scale respectively. Further analysis is underway to extract more information from this low cost integrative ECG and Phonocardiogram system. In future this system could be used for telemedicine purpose.