Computer Extraction of Electrocardiographic Parameters

T HIS STUDY was undertaken to demonstrate the feasibility of use of a computer program to extract automatically, without human intervention, clinically useful measurements of the parameters of an electrophysiologic tracing. The electrocardiogram was selected as the most suitable model of an electrophysiologic signal from which to extract data because of the large backlog of electrocardiographic data on subjects known to be norrnal or abnormal. Moreover, widespread use of electrocardiograms facilitates future statistical validation of the results of computer derived data.