Signal analysis systems for optimal timing of electrical defibrillation

• Main Authors: Gorup, Z., Stajer, D., Noc, M.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Data acquisition; Data analysis; Defibrillation; Digital signal processing; Electrocardiography; Fibrillation; Hardware; Signal analysis; Spectral analysis; Timing
• DOI: 10.1109/MELCON.2000.880028

In patients with ventricular fibrillation, some parameters of the spectral analysis of the electrocardiogram (ECG) appeared as promising tools for prediction of the success of electrical defibrillation. Previous research work on data acquisition and analysis of ventricular fibrillation signal by means of three different systems have been performed. Two of the hardware systems are commercially available, the third one is a custom-designed system. The systems offer various advantages and disadvantages. An electronic module based on a portable personal computer (PC) hardware and software was only suitable for clinical research. The battery powered microprocessor based data acquisition (DAQ) system has a long autonomy, small dimensions, and small weight, but it lacks mathematical capability and gives no on-line results. The custom designed DAQ and digital signal processor (DSP) module can be utilized outdoors by the emergency resuscitation team. Basically, all systems have an analog input where the input signal is conditioned (filtered, amplified and limited) and converted to digital data in about 20 microseconds. An internal system random access memory (RAM) is used as temporary data storage. On the DSP based system results of the spectral analysis for 1024 points are obtained in 100 milliseconds. The final result is immediately displayed to facilitate the decision-making for the use of defibrillator.