Related topics: heart · heart attack · myocardial infarction

Apple watch monitors falls, track heart rhythms

For more than a decade, the latest Apple products have been the annual must-have holiday gift for the tech-savvy. That raises the question: Is the newest Apple Watch on your list—either to give or receive—this year?

Electronics that flex and stretch like skin

Imec announced today that it has integrated an ultra-thin, flexible chip with bendable and stretchable interconnects into a package that adapts dynamically to curving and bending surfaces. The resulting circuitry can be embedded ...

Imec unveils innovative technology for an ECG patch

Imec and Holst Centre announce an innovative body patch that integrates an ultra-low power electrocardiogram (ECG) chip and a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio. This unique combination fuses power-efficient electronics and ...

Medical apps ease burden on hospitals

When Dr. Jose Soler got a late-night call about a critically ill patient, he grabbed his iPad and checked the results of the electrocardiogram test that just had been administered. Thanks to an app that zooms within half ...

New mobile can check pulse, send ambulance

A new phone developed in Singapore takes your pulse when you press your fingers on a receptor, and sends the results to a 24-hour medical call centre.

Monitoring your health with your mobile phone

Belgian Imec, together with TASS software professionals have developed a mobile heart monitoring system that allows to view your electrocardiogram on an Android mobile phone.

Peer-to-peer heart monitoring

The possibility of remote monitoring for chronically ill patients will soon become a reality. Now, researchers in South Africa and Australia have devised a decentralized system to avoid medical data overload. They describe ...

Electrocardiography

Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) is a transthoracic interpretation of the electrical activity of the heart over time captured and externally recorded by skin electrodes. It is a noninvasive recording produced by an electrocardiographic device. The etymology of the word is derived from electro, because it is related to electrical activity, cardio, Greek for heart, graph, a Greek root meaning "to write".

Electrical impulses in the heart originate in the sinoatrial node and travel through the intrinsic conducting system to the heart muscle.The impulses stimulate the myocardial muscle fibres to contract and thus induce systole. The electrical waves can be measured at selectively placed electrodes (electrical contacts) on the skin. Electrodes on different sides of the heart measure the activity of different parts of the heart muscle. An ECG displays the voltage between pairs of these electrodes, and the muscle activity that they measure, from different directions, also understood as vectors. This display indicates the overall rhythm of the heart and weaknesses in different parts of the heart muscle. It is the best way to measure and diagnose abnormal rhythms of the heart, particularly abnormal rhythms caused by damage to the conductive tissue that carries electrical signals, or abnormal rhythms caused by levels of dissolved salts (electrolytes), such as potassium, that are too high or low. In myocardial infarction (MI), the ECG can identify damaged heart muscle. But it can only identify damage to muscle in certain areas, so it can't rule out damage in other areas. The ECG cannot reliably measure the pumping ability of the heart; for which ultrasound-based (echocardiography) or nuclear medicine tests are used.

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