Medical Concepts, Inc.

Richard J Byrne

John R Moreno

Charles B Shakespeare

An ambulatory cardiac monitoring system (10) to event record and monitor ECG signals (20) from a patient (12) for a predetermined time interval. The ambulatory cardiac monitoring system (10) includes a recorder system (18) which is carried by the patient (12). The recorder system (10) is coupled to the patient through leads (16) and electrodes (14) positionally located contiguous to the patient (12). The recorder system (18) includes an analog pre-processor (32), a first microcomputer (34) coupled in a feedback manner to analog pre-processor (32), and a cassette recorder (38). The analog pre-processor (32) has incorporated both automatic gain control and conditioning circuitry that normalizes and filters the basic ECG signal (20). The analog pre-processor (32) produces a plurality of extraction signals which are input to microcomputer (34). The microcomputer (34) continuously monitors the signal inputs from the analog pre-processor (32) as well as digitized ECG signal (20) from an analog/digital converter (36). The microcomputer (34) includes decision algorithms for classification of each heartbeat and tallies abnormal events. The memory of microcomputer (34) is used as a temporary storage area of the ECG signal (20) in order to delay the ECG signal (20) for a predetermined time interval in order that analysis of a particular signal may be obtained.

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Philadelphia, PA, United States of America

Richard J Byrne