Method and apparatus for noninvasive detection of potential symptomless blood loss

摘要

A method comprising obtaining (3-20) a first electrocardiography [“ECG”] reading from a test subject when the test subject is believed to not suffer from blood loss and obtaining (3-22) a second ECG reading from the test subject when the test subject is in an unknown condition regarding blood loss. The first ECG reading and the second ECG reading are obtained using the same electrode positions on the test subject and comprise sets of ECG signals which, based on experimental data, respond to symptomless blood loss by a statistically significant strength decrease. If the second ECG reading exhibits a statistically significant strength decrease compared with the first ECG reading, an alert condition is raised (3-26), which indicates potential symptomless blood loss. The method can be embodied as a stand-alone ECG apparatus or as an add-on unit to an ECG apparatus.