Wireless Control and Processing of ECG Signal for Medical Diagnosis of Patients

Abstract

The Electrocardiography (ECG) is an essential diagnostic tool that measures and records the electrical activity of the heart. A wide range of heart conditions can be detected when interpreting the recorded ECG signals. The commonly used ECG-machine is expensive and stationary and because of this, it is impractical. This is especially the case when trying to do research or perform daily monitoring of patients who are at risk of having heart problems without keeping them at the hospital The aim of this project was to develop a small wireless sensor system to be able to perform ECG on patients at home, without the need for hospitalization. This system is to be more mobile and flexible than classic ECG recording machine. It is intended to provide an alternative to the current wired-based ECG devices for monitoring patients remotely. The system can be connected to the patient mobile phone which sends the ECG signal to any place such as hospital PC using the GPRS technology. The first phase of the project was to design and implement the interfacing circuit. It was accomplished successfully, and the result of the analogue part was acceptable. The next phase of the project was to transmit ECG data from the mobile phone to a PC located centrally within a hospital or a medical center for continuous monitoring of the patient. To do this, a microcontroller was used and a special software was developed to convert and transmit the analogue signal of the ECG from the mobile phone. It was also necessarily to develop a software to facilitate receiving the data from the mobile phone and to display it on the PC. A successful interface between the mobile and a microcontroller was accomplished. A data was sent from the microcontroller to the mobile were the later acknowledges the receiving of the data. Further work is still required for the system