Novel ECG Aids Early Diagnosis of Heart Attacks

A clinical study has found that an electrocardiac mapping system demonstrated superiority in the early diagnosis of heart attacks in high-risk patients whose symptoms were hard to interpret with a traditional 12-lead ECG. The study was published in the European Heart Journal (2001;22:218-227).

Patients in the study had chest pain symptoms without the classic ST elevation used to identify heart attack in most patients. Instead, these patients exhibited ST depression only, a frequent finding in the 40-50% of heart attack patients without ST elevation. However, ST depression only cannot be relied upon to diagnose a heart attack with traditional ECG technology. Without diagnosis and treatment, these high-risk patients have an early mortality rate of 19%, which increases to 31% after one year

In the study, 54 patients with chest pain and ST depression were evaluated with a standard 12-lead ECG system. They were also evaluated with the Prime ECG system (Meridian Medical Technologies, Inc., Columbia, MD, USA), which employs 80 leads placed around the patient's torso. Standard ECG correctly identified only 38-50% of heart attacks, while Prime ECG detected nearly 90%. Prime ECG includes computer software that rapidly processes heart signals to create full-color, multidimensional diagnostic images designed to be more revealing and more easily interpreted than a traditional ECG pattern.

"The results from our study show the importance of measuring leads outside the conventional precordial area,” noted Dr. Ian Menown and colleagues, who conducted the study at the Royal Victoria Hospital and the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland.



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