Portable Electro Cardiography Simulator

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases have affected the lives of around 17.7 million people every year accounting for 31% of all deaths globally. Electrocardiography (ECG) is a process to record electrical signals in human heart. ECGs are carried out to dia

Project Title

Portable Electro Cardiography Simulator

Project Area of Specialization

Biomedical Engineering

Project Summary

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cardiovascular diseases have affected the lives of around 17.7 million people every year accounting for 31% of all deaths globally.

Electrocardiography (ECG) is a process to record electrical signals in human heart. ECGs are carried out to diagnose heart problems and to monitor heart’s health. A normal heart beats 60 to 100 times per minute in adults with a uniformity and regularity. Other types of waveforms are considered abnormal. Most common types of abnormal ECG waveforms produced by a human heart are tachycardia, bradycardia and atrial fibrillation

There are three main components to an ECG: the P wave which represents the depolarization of the atria; the QRS complex, which represents the depolarization of the ventricles; and the T wave,which represents the repolarization of the ventricles.

 About 10% of the ECG interpretation (all of them were abnormal) by machine were wrong, which would have led to misdiagnosis. Therefore, it is extremely important for ECG machines to get checked with a testing device before interfacing it with humans directly.

An ECG simulator is just like an artificial heart and is capable of generating different heart waves through electrical signals .in order to validate ECG monitor’s performance it is essential to test it through ECG simulator.

Our project introduces such a tool that is capable of generating required test signals with increased functionality and flexibility compared to existing available test tool such as ProSim by Fluke Biomedical USA. A key benefit is that this simulator allows user-interaction via graphical user interface (GUI) while, at the same time, signals are accessible through a hardware output.

The goal of our project is to develop a portable ECG simulator, needed for testing of ECG machines. It should be able to generate analog signals of heart waves and to reproduce the amplitude and frequency accuracy of the standardized training databases. By including normal sinus rhythms, different arrhythmia types and test waveforms, the proposed device becomes really efficient both for medical equipment maintenance and educational purposes.

Project Objectives

It is designed to check the malfunctioning of ECG machines. It is a must have tool to calibrate ECG machines so that proper Diagnosis can be done . It can Also be used for Educational purposes and research work.

Project Implementation Method

ECG simulator will take some parameters as input, which can be selected by
the user using the touchscreen display. Once the combination of these parameters is 
selected and entered, the microcontroller starts producing the ECG waveform which 
can be observed on the screen and obtained from the output electrodes.
In order to produce a normal sinus rhythm (fig 1.1) the microcontroller will 
produce a single cycle, with respect to the parameters like amplitude and age group. 
Then this cycle will be repeated in a loop, whose frequency will be defined by the 
entered heart rate.
While on the other hand some arrhythmic waveforms are completely random 
like ventricular fibrillation (fig 1.2). The microcontroller will produce such
waveforms from a small number of readings (enough to be displayed on a single 
screen) from MIT-BIH Arrhythmia Database, and play the sequence in a loop.
The microcontroller will keep on producing the waveform until an interrupt
is triggered like a stop/back button on the touch display.

Benefits of the Project

It can check the performance of ECG machines which can be beneficial to diagnose diseases properly. It can also be used to simulate Artificial heart waves so that researchers and students can get benefit from it

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

It is a portable Electro cardiography simulator that can be used to generate artifical heart waves. it comprises both of software for signal generation and a dedicated hardware 
circuit board enclosed in 3D printed case for signal output.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Medical

Other Industries

Education , Health

Core Technology

Others

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com