scholarly journals ECG Interpretation: Clinical Relevance, Challenges, and Advances

Hearts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 505-513
Author(s):  
Nikita Rafie ◽  
Anthony H. Kashou ◽  
Peter A. Noseworthy

Since its inception, the electrocardiogram (ECG) has been an essential tool in medicine. The ECG is more than a mere tracing of cardiac electrical activity; it can detect and diagnose various pathologies including arrhythmias, pericardial and myocardial disease, electrolyte disturbances, and pulmonary disease. The ECG is a simple, non-invasive, rapid, and cost-effective diagnostic tool in medicine; however, its clinical utility relies on the accuracy of its interpretation. Computer ECG analysis has become so widespread and relied upon that ECG literacy among clinicians is waning. With recent technological advances, the application of artificial intelligence-augmented ECG (AI-ECG) algorithms has demonstrated the potential to risk stratify, diagnose, and even interpret ECGs—all of which can have a tremendous impact on patient care and clinical workflow. In this review, we examine (i) the utility and importance of the ECG in clinical practice, (ii) the accuracy and limitations of current ECG interpretation methods, (iii) existing challenges in ECG education, and (iv) the potential use of AI-ECG algorithms for comprehensive ECG interpretation.

Author(s):  
Cristian BROJBĂ

The electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) represents the graphical recording of the cardiac electrical activity (Ghiţă et al., 2005) and it is useful in the diagnosis in some cardiac diseases (such as rhythm disorders) (Cotor and Ghiţă, 2014) or frequency disorders (Ghiţă et al., 2007).The main target of this research work was to determine the values of the main components of the ECG and the cardiac frequency. The biological material was represented by 12 healthy cats of different breeds. The values obtained in this research work can be used as reference values in ECG interpretation in cats.


Author(s):  
Antra Ganguly ◽  
Manisha Sharma

Cardiac auscultation can be perceived as method of determining the human heart condition by listening to the heart sounds. These heart sounds contain vital information related to a person’s heart condition. Any departure from the normal cardiac auscultation readings in terms of presence of additional heart sounds is indicative of an unhealthy heart. The use of Phonocardiogram (PCG)signals (i.e. the electronic recording of heart sounds) completely dismisses the limitation of relying solely on the physician’s hearing ability. At the same time, they provide with a high-fidelity representation of the heart sounds in the most cost-effective way as compared to the methods like Electrocardiogram (ECG). In this paper, a method of detection of heart ailments by extracting the features of PCG signals is proposed. The normal heart sounds, gallop rhythms and the most common pathological murmurs have been used for analysis. By analyzing these signals, early detection and diagnosis of heart diseases can be done reliably. This will not only confirm health and longevity by early diagnosis and pin-pointed prognosis, but will also be economically suitable for those who can hardly afford tests like ECG. It can also be practicable in the case of infants wherein the other non-invasive diagnosis techniques like ECG fail.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (22) ◽  
pp. 7026
Author(s):  
Alonso Ornelas-González ◽  
Margarita Ortiz-Martínez ◽  
Mirna González-González ◽  
Marco Rito-Palomares

Early detection is a key factor in patient fate. Currently, multiple biomolecules have been recognized as biomarkers. Nevertheless, their identification is only the starting line on the way to their implementation in disease diagnosis. Although blood is the biofluid par excellence for the quantification of biomarkers, its extraction is uncomfortable and painful for many patients. In this sense, there is a gap in which saliva emerges as a non-invasive and valuable source of information, as it contains many of the biomarkers found in blood. Recent technological advances have made it possible to detect and quantify biomarkers in saliva samples. However, there are opportunity areas in terms of cost and complexity, which could be solved using simpler methodologies such as those based on enzymes. Many reviews have focused on presenting the state-of-the-art in identifying biomarkers in saliva samples. However, just a few of them provide critical analysis of technical elements for biomarker quantification in enzymatic methods for large-scale clinical applications. Thus, this review proposes enzymatic assays as a cost-effective alternative to overcome the limitations of current methods for the quantification of biomarkers in saliva, highlighting the technical and operational considerations necessary for sampling, method development, optimization, and validation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Marymol Koshy ◽  
Bushra Johari ◽  
Mohd Farhan Hamdan ◽  
Mohammad Hanafiah

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a global disease affecting people of various ethnic origins and both genders. HCM is a genetic disorder with a wide range of symptoms, including the catastrophic presentation of sudden cardiac death. Proper diagnosis and treatment of this disorder can relieve symptoms and prolong life. Non-invasive imaging is essential in diagnosing HCM. We present a review to deliberate the potential use of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging in HCM assessment and also identify the risk factors entailed with risk stratification of HCM based on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Jemianne Bautista Jia ◽  
Eric Mastrolonardo ◽  
Mateen Soleman ◽  
Ilya Lekht

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is a cost-effective, quick, and non-invasive imaging modality that has yet to be incorporated in uterine artery embolization (UAE). We present two cases that demonstrate the utility of CEUS in UAE for the identification of uterine-ovarian collaterals which otherwise can result in ineffective fibroid treatment and non-target embolization.


Author(s):  
Muhammad Nadeem Ashraf ◽  
Muhammad Hussain ◽  
Zulfiqar Habib

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a major cause of blindness in diabetic patients. The increasing population of diabetic patients and difficulty to diagnose it at an early stage are limiting the screening capabilities of manual diagnosis by ophthalmologists. Color fundus images are widely used to detect DR lesions due to their comfortable, cost-effective and non-invasive acquisition procedure. Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) of DR based on these images can assist ophthalmologists and help in saving many sight years of diabetic patients. In a CAD system, preprocessing is a crucial phase, which significantly affects its performance. Commonly used preprocessing operations are the enhancement of poor contrast, balancing the illumination imbalance due to the spherical shape of a retina, noise reduction, image resizing to support multi-resolution, color normalization, extraction of a field of view (FOV), etc. Also, the presence of blood vessels and optic discs makes the lesion detection more challenging because these two artifacts exhibit specific attributes, which are similar to those of DR lesions. Preprocessing operations can be broadly divided into three categories: 1) fixing the native defects, 2) segmentation of blood vessels, and 3) localization and segmentation of optic discs. This paper presents a review of the state-of-the-art preprocessing techniques related to three categories of operations, highlighting their significant aspects and limitations. The survey is concluded with the most effective preprocessing methods, which have been shown to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the CAD systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Mejía-Mejía ◽  
James M. May ◽  
Mohamed Elgendi ◽  
Panayiotis A. Kyriacou

AbstractHeart rate variability (HRV) utilizes the electrocardiogram (ECG) and has been widely studied as a non-invasive indicator of cardiac autonomic activity. Pulse rate variability (PRV) utilizes photoplethysmography (PPG) and recently has been used as a surrogate for HRV. Several studies have found that PRV is not entirely valid as an estimation of HRV and that several physiological factors, including the pulse transit time (PTT) and blood pressure (BP) changes, may affect PRV differently than HRV. This study aimed to assess the relationship between PRV and HRV under different BP states: hypotension, normotension, and hypertension. Using the MIMIC III database, 5 min segments of PPG and ECG signals were used to extract PRV and HRV, respectively. Several time-domain, frequency-domain, and nonlinear indices were obtained from these signals. Bland–Altman analysis, correlation analysis, and Friedman rank sum tests were used to compare HRV and PRV in each state, and PRV and HRV indices were compared among BP states using Kruskal–Wallis tests. The findings indicated that there were differences between PRV and HRV, especially in short-term and nonlinear indices, and although PRV and HRV were altered in a similar manner when there was a change in BP, PRV seemed to be more sensitive to these changes.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 879
Author(s):  
Robert D. Crapnell ◽  
Ascanio Tridente ◽  
Craig E. Banks ◽  
Nina C. Dempsey-Hibbert

Lactate is widely measured in critically ill patients as a robust indicator of patient deterioration and response to treatment. Plasma concentrations represent a balance between lactate production and clearance. Analysis has typically been performed with the aim of detecting tissue hypoxia. However, there is a diverse range of processes unrelated to increased anaerobic metabolism that result in the accumulation of lactate, complicating clinical interpretation. Further, lactate levels can change rapidly over short spaces of time, and even subtle changes can reflect a profound change in the patient’s condition. Hence, there is a significant need for frequent lactate monitoring in critical care. Lactate monitoring is commonplace in sports performance monitoring, given the elevation of lactate during anaerobic exercise. The desire to continuously monitor lactate in athletes has led to the development of various technological approaches for non-invasive, continuous lactate measurements. This review aims firstly to reflect on the potential benefits of non-invasive continuous monitoring technology within the critical care setting. Secondly, we review the current devices used to measure lactate non-invasively outside of this setting and consider the challenges that must be overcome to allow for the translation of this technology into intensive care medicine. This review will be of interest to those developing continuous monitoring sensors, opening up a new field of research.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 3373
Author(s):  
Milena Matuszczak ◽  
Jack A. Schalken ◽  
Maciej Salagierski

Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common cancer in men worldwide. The current gold standard for diagnosing PCa relies on a transrectal ultrasound-guided systematic core needle biopsy indicated after detection changes in a digital rectal examination (DRE) and elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level in the blood serum. PSA is a marker produced by prostate cells, not just cancer cells. Therefore, an elevated PSA level may be associated with other symptoms such as benign prostatic hyperplasia or inflammation of the prostate gland. Due to this marker’s low specificity, a common problem is overdiagnosis, which leads to unnecessary biopsies and overtreatment. This is associated with various treatment complications (such as bleeding or infection) and generates unnecessary costs. Therefore, there is no doubt that the improvement of the current procedure by applying effective, sensitive and specific markers is an urgent need. Several non-invasive, cost-effective, high-accuracy liquid biopsy diagnostic biomarkers such as Progensa PCA3, MyProstateScore ExoDx, SelectMDx, PHI, 4K, Stockholm3 and ConfirmMDx have been developed in recent years. This article compares current knowledge about them and their potential application in clinical practice.


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