ECG Machine

Overview

An electrocardiograph records the heart's electrical activity from electrodes placed on the skin and prints or transmits the resulting waveforms. The standard resting study uses ten electrodes to derive twelve leads, each a different vector through the heart, from which clinicians read rate, rhythm, conduction, and signs of ischemia or chamber enlargement.

Signal capture happens on the Acquisition Front-End Board, the isolated patient front-end. An analog front-end ASIC and instrumentation amplifiers boost the microvolt-to-millivolt biopotentials, a 24-bit sigma-delta converter digitizes every lead simultaneously, and a galvanic isolation barrier keeps the patient electrically separate from mains-referenced electronics. A defibrillator-protection network of series resistors and clamps lets the front-end survive a defibrillation pulse delivered while the patient is connected.

How it works

Biopotentials reach the board through the Patient Cable Assembly, a shielded trunk that fans out to lead wires and clip or suction electrodes. The digitized leads pass to the Main Board, which filters baseline wander and mains interference, runs measurement and interpretation algorithms, and renders the traces. The clinician views and annotates the study on the Display Assembly and drives the unit from the Operator Keypad.

Reports print on the Thermal Recorder, a thermal array recorder whose printhead burns the waveform onto heat-sensitive paper advanced by a stepper-driven platen. Studies cross the network through the Connectivity Board over WiFi or Ethernet to the hospital record using HL7 or DICOM. The whole instrument is built into the Housing & Cart, a molded case on a wheeled trolley, and runs from mains power or an internal battery for bedside and transport use.