Method and apparatus for spectral analysis of electrocardiographic signals.

摘要

A frequency domain signal processing an analysis method and apparatus displays, plots and makes measurements upon electrocardiographic signals (ECG) recorded from the body surface. Both the graphic plots and the numeric parameters measured reveal abnormalities of electrical conduction within the heart thought to be important in the identification of patients at risk of serious disturbances of heart rhythm including sudden death. The invention employs frequency analysis of short overlapping segments of ECG signal to create a three dimensional map ("spectrocardiogram") whose axes are time, frequency and power thus disclosing changes in the frequency content of the ECG signal over short intervals of time. In addition to the Fourier analysis itself, the method of apparatus provides a wide choise use-selectable signal pre-processing, post-processing, display and plotting options as well as performing custom mathematical computations upon the frequency spectra to distinguish and quantify visually apparent differences between normal and abnormal spectrocardiogram.