The 12-lead ECG is typically performed in a physician’s office or in the hospital. Usually a technician brings a recording device to the patient’s bedside and attaches the leads, and records the signal acquisition during a short interval while the patient is lying quietly in a supine position. From this 12-lead ECG, a wide variety of ECG diagnoses are made. Computer processing of these ECG signals taken at that moment in time has become the definitive practical option for ECG interpretation. Automated ECG analysis has become widespread in clinical practice since the mid-1980s although, in most hospitals, cardiologists will also read them to confirm the automated findings. Automated ECG analysis is quite accurate, especially in normal individuals, but disagreements with cardiologists are seen and may be clinically important (Guglin 2006; Bogun et al. 2004). On the other hand, cardiologists are not perfect either (Clark et al. 2010)! (Gardner, Clemmer, Evans, Mark, …show more content…
Continuous, real-time monitoring is required while the patient is in the ICU. Because of patient movement, caregiver activities such as administering medications, bathing and the like, the amount of artifact generated poses important challenges to real-time monitoring. To minimize these effects, filtering of the acquired ECG signal is performed. This filtering slightly distorts the ECG but at the same time makes it possible to process the signals on a beat-by-beat basis. Although standards for interpretation of ECG monitoring are more recent than those for 12-lead monitoring, they are now becoming more common and sophisticated (Drew and Funk 2006; Funk et al. 2010). The clinical experts who are establishing the knowledge base now include critical-care nurses, cardiologists, anesthesiologist, and thoracic surgeons (Crossley et al. 2011). (Gardner, Clemmer, Evans, Mark,