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28 - ECG technology for the brain–machine interface

from Part VI - Brain interfaces

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2015

Ajay Bharadwaj
Affiliation:
Cypress Semiconductor
Sandro Carrara
Affiliation:
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Krzysztof Iniewski
Affiliation:
Redlen Technologies Inc., Canada
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Summary

Electrocardiography (ECG) is the acquisition of electrical activity of the heart captured over time by an external electrode attached to the skin. Each of the cell membranes that form the outer covering of the heart cell has an associated charge which is depolarized during every heartbeat. These appear as tiny electrical signals on the skin which can be detected and amplified by an electrical circuit.

History of ECG

Alexander Muirhead is reported to have recorded a patient’s heartbeat initially in 1872. In the early twentieth century, Willem Einthoven used a string galvanometer to measure the electrical activity of the heart. In those days, patients had to immerse their limbs into salt solutions from which the ECG was recorded. Nowadays, the ECG machine can be carried around in a patient’s pocket and has become truly mobile. Einthoven assigned the letters P, Q, R, S, T to various deflections in the wave and identified features of a number of disorders based on the deflections. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discovery. Even though many advances have been made in the field of ECG, the basic principles are still valid even today.

Sample waveforms of ECG

The ECG signal is characterized by peaks and troughs as shown in Figure 28.1. For each beat of the heart, a similar sequence is generated owing to contraction and relaxation of various muscles of the heart. The ECG signal is plotted on graph paper as shown in Figure 28.2.

Type
Chapter
Information
Handbook of Bioelectronics
Directly Interfacing Electronics and Biological Systems
, pp. 344 - 351
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Prutchi, D. and Norris, M., Design and Development of Medical Electronic Instrumentation. Wiley Publications, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tompkins, W. J. and Webster, J. G. (eds.) Design of Microcomputer-based Medical Instrumentation. Prentice-Hall, 1981.Google Scholar
Firth, J. and Errico, P., “Low-power, low-voltage IC choices for ECG system requirements,” Analog Dialogue, Vol. 29, No. 3, 1995.Google Scholar
ADS1298 Data sheet Revision G.
Webster, J. G., Medical Instrumentation. Application and Design. 3rd edition, Wiley, 1998.Google Scholar

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