Sensors could prevent heart disease complications

Scientists from universities and companies in eight European countries are developing a way of breaking down electrocardiogram (ECG) signals from the heart to get a better understanding of factors affecting a patient’s condition.

Researchers from Southampton University are working on the implant that will monitor and analyse the ECG and transmit the data to the patient’s doctor, alerting them if there is a problem.

Different electrical frequencies can dominate the ECG signal so, by using a type of analysis known as wavelet transform, the team hopes to discover which frequency component is dominant at which time.

The device also will collate information from skin sensors detecting temperature, sweat and movement, giving a better understanding of how activity affects ECG.

This will allow doctors to identify interference from other ‘artefacts’, such as the electrical activity produced by muscle movement.

‘All these factors could affect ECG but nobody yet knows how,’ said Dr Koushik Maharatna from the university’s school of electronics and computer science. Maharatna’s co-collaborators Prof John Morgan from the university’s school of medicine and Dr Nick Curzen from Southampton University Hospital NHS Trust.