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Abstract

A portable low energy consumptive device and method for monitoring heart muscle electrical activity includes a plurality of electrical contacts and a signal processing unit. The contacts receive an electrical signal generated by the heart muscle of a patient and deliver the signal in analog form to the signal processing unit which contains an analog signal processor, an A/D converter, a digital microprocessor, and a memory. The unit triplicates the signal and processes each of the three signals separately in the analog signal processor. The processed signals are then converted to three distinct digital data sets, the first of which is stored in memory while the remaining two are processed in the microprocessor to determine ST segment characteristics useful in diagnosing myocardial ischemia. Although the device operates continuously, only a portion of the operating time is devoted to digital data processing which has a higher energy demand. The remainder of the operating time is devoted to analog signal processing or data storage which have a lower energy demand.

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First Claim