Introduction Statistics have revealed that Second only to cancer, Heart disease is the world’s greatest killer. One of the most useful diagnostic tools for heart patients is the electrocardiograph(ECG), which measures the tiny electrical signals emitted by your heart through chest electrodes.

Goals & ObjectivesThis project focuses on designing and building a computerized 3 leads electrocardiography (ECG) which can monitor the electrical activity of the human heart.By using 3 electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the heart, this project has addressed some of the issues with patient discomfort. This project has been designed so as to allow any patient to administer portions of the ECG test themselves thereby reducing the work load on healthcare professionals. A clinical ECG consists of 10 electrodes but this is extremely time consuming and involves the use of gels and pastes that require skin preparation in the thoracic region.Given the fact that there are long wires used in clinical ECGs a patient’s mobility is severely restricted which results in patient discomfort.

Designing LabVIEW™ InterfaceThe applications to LabVIEW™ are endless. In the case of the ECG,Labview is used to monitor the resulting ECG signal on a waveform in a real time manner .Serial port Acquisition (Phase 1 )Phase 1 focuses on obtaining & analyzing the resulting ECG signal acquired via the serial port. Figure 2 illustrates the serial port results.

DAQ Acquisition (Phase 2 )Phase 2 focuses on analyzing the resulting signal acquired through the data acquisition card NI-USB 6008. Figure 3 illustrates the DAQ results.

ResultsThe use of low power operational amplifier has allowed the system to become power efficient. By using a 2nd order Sallen-Key Active low pass filter, the ECG system has suppressed the high end frequencies of the ECG waveform Besides, this has not affected the ECG adversely.

ConclusionThe Computerized 3 Leads ECG system has achieved the objectives that were laid out at the beginning of the project. The ECG system is able to detect an ECG signal and amplify it to the required level. It can gather information about the cardiac rhythm and rate. By utilizing a power supply that requires a single 9V battery the ECG system is portable.

Recommendations & Future WorkAs with any project there is always room for improvement. Improvements on the project include combining the two electrodes into a single electrode separated by a distance of 3 cm and positioning it on the chest.This would eliminate the need for electrode wires and would greatly reduce the noise in the system.

“ Design of The Computerized 3 Leads ECG ” Bilal Daoud— Department of Biomedical Engineering(BME)

Figure 2 , ECG signal acquired via serial port

Figure 3 , ECG signal acquired using DAQ