They remain some of the most complex diagnostic procedures carried out by doctors. To take an electrocardiogram, or ECG, they first have to attach 10 or more electrodes to a patient’s chest, arms and legs to measure the heart’s electrical activity. Then, once these signals have been recorded, a cardiologist has to interpret them to determine if a person has a particular heart ailment.
It is a life-saving technology – but a complicated, expensive one. However, UK scientists now believe they could soon overcome these limitations by developing devices which will allow patients to take their own detailed ECGs at home and be provided with easily interpreted diagnoses about the state of their hearts.
Results should then make it easier and quicker to make early diagnoses of potentially fatal cardiac conditions and save thousands of lives by intervening at early stages of an illness.
“There are smartwatches that will take ECGs at present, but they provide only minimal information,” said Prof Caroline Jay, of Manchester University. “We are taking this data, and working on software applications that will allow a person to get a much more detailed picture of the state of their heart, and potentially flag life-threatening conditions to them.”
An ECG records the electrical activity of a person’s heart as it beats and pumps blood round the body. These signals provide vital information that indicates if a patient is at risk of a heart attack or is suffering from thickening of cardiac blood vessels or other life-threatening conditions.
“An ECG is a window into the activity of the human heart and is used widely in clinical practice, mostly in hospitals,” said Jay. “However, readouts from an ECG are also difficult to understand and it takes a clinician many years of training to be able to accurately interpret one. Our research is aimed at reducing the time needed to take and understand the results of an ECG to a few seconds.”
To achieve this, researchers have used AI as well as knowledge of cognitive psychology and visual perception to create colour-coded versions of an ECG in a way that clearly indicates if patients have a life-threatening condition, are at risk of one or if they are free of such danger.
One of the team who led the development of the system is Dr Alaa Alahmadi, who is now a lecturer in computational medicine at Newcastle University. “Basically, we are adding a third dimension to readouts: colour. We also use AI to interpret the signals and understand what is really happening,” she said.
The end result is an output in which blue-green is used to indicate that nothing is wrong; yellow suggests the beginning of a problem; and orange-red means immediate intervention is needed, added Alahmadi. “It is as straightforward as that.”
A particular target for researchers’ attention is known as long QT syndrome. In a typical heart, the heart sends blood out to the body during each heartbeat, a process that is coordinated by electrical signals. In long QT syndrome, the heart’s electrical system takes longer than usual to recover between beats and over time this can lead to serious side-effects that include fainting, seizures and cardiac arrest.
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“The condition occurs naturally but cancer medication, antidepressants and some antibiotics can cause it as well,” said Jay. “We want to be sure newly developed medicines do not trigger this condition, and being able to monitor ECGs easily and speedily is going to be a significant aid.”
It is envisaged the system would be used in conjunction with wearable ECGs devices – including smartwatches. “You could then take your own ECG at home and be provided, for the first time, with diagnoses that are easy to understand and which will give people a very quick indication of the state of their hearts.”
This point was backed by Alahmadi. “Even for trained clinicians it can be difficult and time-consuming to interpret ECGs. This technology will be a real help for them. And if you are making the general public actually understand their own ECGs then this would also make a big difference. It could save many people’s lives.”
