Patent ID: 9681818
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: A61B,G06T,G09G,G16H

Claim:
1. A method for diagnosing atrial fibrillation in a subject, comprising: acquiring an electrocardiogram (ECG) signal from a heart of the subject over multiple heart cycles; partitioning the ECG signal into a succession of synchronized segments each having respective start times at a selected annotation point in the respective heart cycles, wherein said synchronized segments each represent heart cycles occurring at different time points; providing a display screen having a display axis, the display axis representing a time period corresponding to one synchronized segment; simultaneously displaying graphical representations of a plurality of synchronized segments on the display axis, such that synchronized segments corresponding to ECG signals from a plurality of different heart cycles occurring at different time points are simultaneously overlaid on the display axis, and wherein said graphical representations of the plurality of synchronized segments at least partially overlap on the display screen; wherein additional synchronized segments are continuously created as the ECG signal is received from the heart of the subject, wherein graphical representations of newly created synchronized signals are continuously added to the display axis on the display screen, and wherein graphical representations of older synchronized signals are removed from the display axis after a period of time; wherein each synchronized segment is first presented on the display screen with an initial display intensity at a respective display time corresponding to a respective start time of the synchronized segment; gradually decreasing a display intensity of the graphical representation of each synchronized segment overlaid on the display screen as a decaying function of a time elapsed since the respective display time until each synchronized segment is, in respective turn, removed from the display axis; and wherein graphical representations of synchronized segments having a plurality of different respective display intensities are simultaneously presented on the display axis; the method further comprising: determining whether said plurality of graphical representations of the plurality of synchronized segments on the display axis comprise both (i) one or more synchronized segments which each include an irregular but periodic wave form, and also (ii) one or more synchronized segments which do not include said irregular but periodic wave form; and diagnosing atrial fibrillation in the subject when condition (i) and (ii) are both satisfied.