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US-12616405-B2 - Providing a live-lead view

US12616405B2US 12616405 B2US12616405 B2US 12616405B2US-12616405-B2

Abstract

An example method is performed by an electrocardiogram (ECG) device and includes determining a number of lead wires of an ECG cable assembly that is attached to the ECG device. The method also includes receiving ECG signals using electrodes of the ECG cable assembly. Further, the method includes using the number of lead wires as a basis for selecting a live-lead view from among a first live-lead view and a second live-lead view. Still further, the method includes displaying a representation of the ECG signals in the selected live-lead view in accordance with the selection.

Inventors

  • Ryan W. Apperson
  • Rick Palm
  • David J. Linville
  • Michelle Liu
  • Tyson G. Taylor
  • Ronald E. Stickney

Assignees

  • PHYSIO-CONTROL, INC.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20211109

Claims (17)

  1. 1 . A method comprising: determining, by an electrocardiogram (ECG) device comprising a defibrillator monitor, a number of lead wires of an ECG cable assembly that is attached to the ECG device, wherein determining the number of lead wires comprises electrically detecting, via a continuity check between pins of the ECG cable assembly, whether an auxiliary cable assembly is attached to a precordial cable assembly of the ECG cable assembly to configure the ECG device for multi-lead ECG signal acquisition; receiving, by the ECG device, ECG signals using electrodes of the ECG cable assembly; using, by the ECG device, the number of lead wires being either equal to ten or greater than ten as a basis for selecting a live-lead view from among a live twelve-lead view and a live fifteen-lead view, selecting the live twelve-lead view based on the number of lead wires being ten and selecting the live fifteen-lead view based on the number of lead wires being greater than ten, wherein a selection configures a graphical user interface of the ECG device to display a number of representations of the ECG signals equal to a number of ECG leads in the selected live-lead view based on the detected cable configuration, thereby enabling observation and adjustment of electrode connections for diagnostic quality without user input on the cable configuration; and displaying, by the ECG device, the representations of the ECG signals in the selected live-lead view in accordance with the selection.
  2. 2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein: the live fifteen-lead view includes a first user-interface screen including a first number of ECG display positions and a second user-interface screen including a second number of ECG display positions, and the method further comprises: obtaining user input via a user interface of the ECG device, and responsive to obtaining the user input, switching from displaying the first user-interface screen to displaying the second user-interface screen.
  3. 3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the representations of the ECG signals includes lead labels for respective ECG leads, and wherein the method further comprises: obtaining a selection of an ECG lead via a user interface of the ECG device; displaying a menu of one or more alternate positions corresponding to the ECG lead; obtaining a selection of an alternative position from among the one or more alternate positions; and relabeling the ECG lead in accordance with the selection of the alternative position.
  4. 4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining the alternate positions by using a predefined mapping that maps ECG leads to alternate positions.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 3 , wherein: the ECG lead is a V3 lead and the one or more alternate positions comprise a V3R lead, the ECG lead is a V4 lead and the one or more alternate positions comprise a V4R lead and a V7 lead, the ECG lead is a V5 lead and the one or more alternate positions comprise a V5R lead and a V8 lead, the ECG lead is a V6 lead and the one or more alternate positions comprise a V9 lead, or the ECG lead is an A1 lead, A2 lead, or A3 lead and the one or more alternate positions comprise a V3R lead, a V4R lead, a V5R lead, a V7 lead, a V8 lead, and a V9 lead.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: detecting a threshold amount of artifact in an ECG signal of the ECG signals; and based on detecting the threshold amount of artifact, generating a notification indicating that one or more of the ECG signals are noisy.
  7. 7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the notification identifies an ECG lead corresponding to the ECG signal.
  8. 8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: after displaying the representation of the ECG signals in the selected live-lead view, obtaining an instruction to generate an ECG report; analyzing ECG signals corresponding to an analysis time period; based on the analyzing, generating an onscreen report; and displaying the onscreen report.
  9. 9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein: the onscreen report includes waveform representations of the ECG signals corresponding to the analysis time period, the waveform representations of the ECG signals are arranged in a rectangular grid, and the method further comprises: obtaining an instruction to alter dimensions of the rectangular grid; and responsive to obtaining the instruction, altering the dimensions of the rectangular grid such that at least one waveform representation of the waveform representations is moved to a different position within the rectangular grid.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising: receiving a selection of one of the waveform representations; and displaying an enlarged view of the waveform representation.
  11. 11 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining that a lead wire that is used to develop an ECG lead is disconnected; and providing a notification indicating that the ECG lead is unavailable.
  12. 12 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein a plurality of executable instructions, which when executed by an electrocardiogram (ECG) device comprising a defibrillator monitor causes the ECG device to perform functions comprising: determining a number of lead wires of an ECG cable assembly that is attached to the ECG device, wherein determining the number of lead wires comprises electrically detecting, via a continuity check between pins of the ECG cable assembly, whether an auxiliary cable assembly is attached to a precordial cable assembly of the ECG cable assembly to configure the ECG device for multi-lead ECG signal acquisition; receiving signals using electrodes of the ECG cable assembly; using the number of lead wires being either equal to ten or greater than ten as a basis for selecting a live-lead view from among a live twelve-lead view and a live fifteen-lead view, selecting the live twelve-lead view based on the number of lead wires being ten and selecting the live fifteen-lead view based on the number of lead wires being greater than ten, wherein a selection configures a graphical user interface of the ECG device to display a number of representations of the ECG signals equal to a number of ECG leads in the selected live-lead view based on the detected cable configuration, thereby enabling observation and adjustment of electrode connections for diagnostic quality without user input on the cable configuration; and displaying the representations of the ECG signals in the selected live-lead view in accordance with the selection.
  13. 13 . An electrocardiogram (ECG) device comprising: a defibrillator monitor; a non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored therein a plurality of executable instructions; and a processor adapted to execute the plurality of executable instructions to: determine a number of lead wires of an ECG cable assembly that is attached to the ECG device, wherein determining the number of lead wires comprises electrically detecting, via a continuity check between pins of the ECG cable assembly, whether an auxiliary cable assembly is attached to a precordial cable assembly of the ECG cable assembly to configure the ECG device for multi-lead ECG signal acquisition, receive signals using electrodes of the ECG cable assembly, use the number of lead wires being either equal to ten or greater than ten as a basis for selecting a live-lead view from among a live twelve-lead view and a live fifteen-lead view, selecting the live twelve-lead view based on the number of lead wires being ten and selecting the live fifteen-lead view based on the number of lead wires being greater than ten, wherein a selection configures a graphical user interface of the ECG device to display a number of representations of the ECG signals equal to a number of ECG leads in the selected live-lead view based on the detected cable configuration, thereby enabling observation and adjustment of electrode connections for diagnostic quality without user input on the cable configuration, and display the representations of the ECG signals in the selected live-lead view in accordance with the selection.
  14. 14 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the representations of the ECG signals includes waveform representations of multiple ECG leads, and wherein the method further comprises determining that a waveform representation of a particular ECG lead is indicative of poor contact between an electrode and a patient.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising prompting the user to remove and reapply or replace the electrode or encourage the patient to hold still.
  16. 16 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the representation of the ECG signals is updated to reflect an improvement in quality after a corrective action to the electrode connections.
  17. 17 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the ECG device comprises multiple storage partitions and processors, and wherein at least one processor of the processors receives inputs from the multi-lead ECG system and processes the inputs to generate outputs stored in the memory.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 63/118,251, filed on Nov. 25, 2020, the entire contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. BACKGROUND An electrocardiogram (ECG) device measures electrical activity of a patient's heart using electrodes placed on the patient's skin. In operation, the ECG device may output one or more graphs of voltage over time, referred to as an ECG. A medical professional can evaluate an ECG to diagnose a patient's condition. An ECG lead is a view of electrical activity of a heart from a particular angle. Some ECG devices, referred to as single-lead devices, provide just a single ECG lead using two electrodes. Other ECG devices provide multiple ECG leads. For instance, a 12-lead ECG provides twelve ECG leads using ten electrodes, while a 15-lead ECG provides fifteen ECG leads using thirteen electrodes. 12-lead and 15-lead ECG devices are used on patients of all ages to identify and diagnose cardiac abnormalities. In addition, 12-lead and 15-lead ECG devices are useful in the early detection of patients with acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). SUMMARY Within examples described herein, systems and methods are described that allow users of an ECG device to observe and improve ECG quality before generating an ECG report. The features, functions, and advantages that have been discussed can be achieved independently in various examples or may be combined in yet other examples. Further details of the examples can be seen with reference to the following description and drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES The novel features believed characteristic of the illustrative examples are set forth in the appended claims. The illustrative examples, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and descriptions thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative example of the present disclosure when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 illustrates an example defibrillation scene, according to an example implementation. FIG. 2 illustrates example electrode sites, according to an example implementation. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing example components of an ECG device, according to an example implementation. FIG. 4 illustrates an example ECG cable assembly, according to an example implementation. FIG. 5 illustrates an example live twelve-lead view, according to an example implementation. FIGS. 6-9 illustrate additional example live twelve-lead views. FIGS. 10 and 11 illustrate user-interface screens of an example live fifteen-lead view, according to an example implementation. FIG. 12 illustrates an example live-lead view, according to an example implementation. FIG. 13 illustrates an example prompt, according to an example implementation. FIG. 14 illustrates an example ECG report, according to an example implementation. FIG. 15 illustrates another example ECG report, according to an example implementation. FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of an example of a method, according to an example implementation. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Disclosed examples will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all of the disclosed examples are shown. Indeed, several different examples may be described and should not be construed as limited to the examples set forth herein. Rather, these examples are described so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art. Currently, to obtain an ECG report, a user of an ECG device first applies electrodes to a patient. The user then presses a button or otherwise issues a command that causes the ECG device to acquire ECG signals for an analysis time period (e.g., ten seconds), analyze the ECG signals, generate a report, and print out and/or save the ECG report. If, however, any of the ECG signals are noisy, a portion of the ECG report might not be usable by a medical professional to assess the condition of a patient's heart. Accordingly, the user may attempt to remedy the issue by reapplying or adjusting one of the electrodes, and repeat the procedure, hoping that the corrective action was successful. This guess-and-check approach for improving the quality of an ECG report is inefficient, especially for a patient that is experiencing a heart problem and is need of urgent, life-saving treatment. Moreover, given this urgency, this guess-and-check approach increases the risk of errors by medical personnel in obtaining a satisfactory ECG result. Example methods and devices described herein allow users of an ECG device to observe and improve ECG quality before generating an ECG report. By way of example, prior to analyzing ECG signals and generating an ECG report, an ECG device can provide a live-lead view of multiple ECG leads. The live-lead view ca