Key result
Combining Polar coordinates with pseudo-colour significantly improved the accuracy of lay people in identifying medication-induced increases in the QT interval on ECGs.
Why the study?
Medication-induced long QT syndrome can cause sudden death, but self-monitoring is hindered because detecting QT interval changes on standard ECG is difficult for lay people.
Does introducing a pseudo-colour and changing the coordinate system improve accuracy in identifying increases in the QT interval by lay people?
Does introducing a pseudo-colour and changing the coordinate system improve accuracy in identifying increases in the QT interval by lay people?
Applying simple visualization techniques like pseudo-colour and Polar coordinates can improve the accuracy of lay people in detecting QT interval increases on ECGs.
Visualization may aid lay QT detection on ECGs; leaves open translation to clinical use or outcomes.
The electrocardiogram (ECG), consisting of complex signal data representing the heart’s electrical activity, is used for detecting cardiac pathologies. Certain medications can produce a complication known as ‘long QT syndrome’, shown on the ECG as an increased gap between two parts of the waveform. Self-monitoring for this could be lifesaving, as the syndrome can result in sudden death, but detecting it on the ECG is difficult. Here we evaluate whether introducing a pseudo-colour and changing the coordinate system can support lay people in identifying increases in the QT interval. The results show that introducing colour significantly improves accuracy, and that whilst it is easier to detect a difference without colour with Cartesian coordinates, the greatest accuracy is achieved when Polar coordinates are combined with colour. The results show that applying simple visualisation techniques has the potential to improve ECG interpretation accuracy, and support people in monitoring their own ECG.
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Alahmadi et al. (2019) studied Medication-induced long QT syndrome. Pseudo-colour and Polar coordinate system vs. No colour and Cartesian coordinate system was evaluated on Accuracy in identifying increases in the QT interval. Combining Polar coordinates with pseudo-colour significantly improved the accuracy of lay people in identifying medication-induced increases in the QT interval on ECGs.
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