USE OF COMPUTERS IN CLINICAL ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY - EVALUATION

  • 1 January 1977
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 117  (8) , 877-880
Abstract
In an investigation of whether conditions can be defined under which the electrocardiographer can use the computer more profitably by eliminating some of the duplication, ECG recorded in patients were processed by a computer program and subsequently reviewed by 1 of 10 electrocardiographers. For ECG interpreted as showing normal sinus rhythm the rate of agreement between computer and human reviewer was 99%. For those showing a normal ECG pattern (contour) the rate of direct agreement was only 88%. The rate of occurrence of clinically significant differences was only 1.64%. The rate of essential agreement for this classification was 98.36%. Other classifications with good agreement were myocardial infarction, sinus bradycardia and sinus tachycardia. In circumstances comparable to those of this investigation it is feasible for electrocardiographers to use computers to greatly reduce their workload without compromising the quality of the service provided.