Exploitation of the redundancy of the conventional limb lead electrocardiograms for prolongation of the record length

A method is described for duplicating the usable record length for computer analysis of the conventional limb lead ECGs. The method is based on the use of the extensive redundancy contained in the limb leads when they are recorded by sequencing in groups of two or three leads at a time. The resultant increase in the number of ECG complexes available for computer analysis facilitates noise reduction procedures and improves the precision and repeatability of ECG measurements. A similar scheme is proposed for duplicating or triplicating the useful record length of lead VI or any other chest lead used for rhythm analysis. Finally, it is noted that the present formats of grouping of the conventional ECG leads are all suboptimal and a transition to simultaneous acquisition of all eight independent components of the 12-lead ECG is encouraged.