Digital computers and pattern recognition programs can be utilized to automatically analyze ECG waveforms to aid physicians in diagnosing heart disease.
The rapid computational capabilities and large storage capacity of the digital computer can provide the physician with a powerful tool for diagnostic procedures. Numerous techniques are available that can be used in attempts to use the digital computer as an aid in diagnosis 1. For this reason, a study in the use of a general-purpose digital computer in analyzing physiological waveforms of the heart and their relationship to cardiovascular pathology has been undertaken, and a pattern recognition program for automatically recognizing clinically useful parameters in the electrocardiogram (ECG) has been developed. The techniques presented are components of a system that can be used as an automated aid for the physician in his diagnostic process 2.
Steinberg et al. (Sun,) studied this question.