ECG electrode strip with elongated slots

Abstract: An ECG harness (11) is positioned on the chest of patient for making electrocardiographic measurements. The harness includes a strip (13) of nonconductive film having a plurality of slots (21, 23, 25, 27) spaced along the length of the strip at selected anatomical positions. A connector terminal (33) is formed at one edge of the strip for connection to a monitoring device. Electrically conductive border traces (29) extend around the slots. The border traces are exposed on the outer side of the strip and insulated from the inner side of the strip. Conductive leads (31) extend from the connector terminal (33) to the border traces (29). Electrode pads (35) are placed on the outer side of the strip (13) at least partially extending over the slots (21, 23, 25, 27). Each of the electrode pads (35) has a conductive inner side (36) for electrical contact with one of the border traces (29) and the skin of the patient.

Description: Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to sensors for conducting electrocardiograph measurements, and in particular to a harness that facilitates rapid and proper placement of the electrodes on a patient. Background of the Invention Electrocardiograph measurements ("ECG") are commonly made to provide information about a patient's heart performance. Typically a technician will place sensors on a patient's chest. The sensors are electrodes having an adhesive gel for adhering to the skin of the patient as well as for providing electrical conductivity. The technician then clips leads from an ECG monitor to a terminal on each of electrode pads. The technician will monitor voltage differential to provide a chart indicating the condition of the patient's heart. It is important to place the electrode pads at fairly precise anatomical positions. These positions have been established so as to provide adequate comparisons with ECG measurements that have been taken across a wide variety of patients. However, varieties in patient size makes this placement a difficult task. Normally, six of the electrode pads must be positioned, then clipped to the leads. Furthermore, the technician has to be careful to clip the proper leads to the proper electrode pads. Skill and care are required to be able to properly position the sensors for an ECG measurement. This become a more difficult task during emergencies. For example, ECG measurements made in an ambulance or with a portable ECG device at a field site are very informative. With time of the essence, it is a difficult task to properly and quickly place and connect the electrode pads. Prior art patents show a variety of devices for facilitating ECG measurements. Generally these devices include some type of strip or harness with the electrodes being prewired to a connector terminal on an edge of the strip. Preconnecting the electrode pads to a connector terminal reduces the chances for a technician to switch the leads inadvertently. Also, some of the devices place the electrodes in the general vicinity of the desired anatomical position. However, because of the differences in patient size, a variety of sizes of these strips may need to be kept on hand. Some of the devices shown would appear to be expensive. For one reason or another, such prewired strips are not commonly used. Summary of the Invention In this invention, a harness as defined in claim 1 is provided for positioning on the chest of a patent for making ECG measurements. The harness includes a thin strip of nonconductive film which has a plurality of slots. The slots are positioned for placement at preselected anatomical positions. The strip has an inner side containing an adhesive layer for adhering to the skin of a patient. A terminal connector is located at one edge of the strip for connection to a monitoring device. A plurality of electrically conductive border traces extend at least partially around the slots. The border traces are exposed on an outer side of the strip and insulated from the inner side of the strip. Conductive leads or traces are formed on the strip also. At least some of the conductive leads extend from the border traces to connect the border traces with the connector terminals. Electrode pads are provided separately from the strip. The electrode pads are generally of conventional nature, but do not require an allegator clip terminal. The pads have a conductive gel on an inner side. The pads are placed over at least portions of the slots in electrical contact with the border traces. The conductive gel of the pads places the skin of the patient in electrical continuity with the border traces and the conductive leads. To avoid having a large number of sizes, some of the slots are elongated, having a greater length than a width. The electrode pads have a width and length, but both are substantially less than the length of the elongated slots. This allows the technician to selectively place the pad at different points along the slots depending upon the size of the patient. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is an elevational view schematically illustrating an ECG harness constructed in accordance with this invention. Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the ECG harness taken along the line 2-2 of Figure 1, with the thickness greatly exaggerated. Figure 3 is a further enlarged sectional view of the harness of Figure 1, taken along the line 3-3 of Figure 1, with the thickness greatly exaggerated. Detailed Description of a Preferred Embodiment Referring to Figure 1, a harness 11 is shown for placement on a patient for making ECG measurements. Harness 11 includes a flexible strip 13. Strip 13 is of a nonconductive substrate or film and has a configuration to perform ECG measurements on a wide variety of patient sizes. Strip 13 has a straight lateral portion 13a which leads to a diagonal portion 13b which is at an obtuse angle relative to lateral portion 13a. Diagonal portion 13b is straight and leads to a head portion 13c. A terminal portion 13d extends from head portion 13c approximately perpendicular to lateral portion 13a. Strip 13 is elongated, having a length from head portion 13c to the free edge of lateral portion 13a that is considerably greater than its width. Referring to Figure 2, strip 13 is considerably thinner than as shown and is exaggerated in thickness. Strip 13 has an outer side 15 that will face away from the patient and an inner side containing an adhesive coating 17. As illustrated in Figure 3, a backing layer 19 will cover adhesive side 17 until use. Backing layer 19 is a removable film for protecting adhesive side 17. Referring again to Figure 1, strip 13 has a plurality of elongated slots 21, 23, 25 and 27 which extend completely through strip 13. Each slot has a length L that is greater than its width W. However, slots, 21, 23, 25, 27 are not all straight and not all the same in length. The width W is preferably the same. Slot 23 is formed in a dogleg shape because it is located approximately at the junction of diagonal portion 13b with lateral portion 13a. Slot 21 is less in length than the lengths of slots 25 and 27 in the embodiment shown because it is closer to head portion 13c than the others. The reason for the different lengths of slots 21, 23, 25 and 27 is to accommodate a great variety of desired anatomical positions for different sizes of patients. Each slot 21, 23, 25 and 27 is surrounded by a border trace 29. Border traces 29 are electrically conductive and form perimeters around each slot 21, 23, 25 and 27. Border traces 29 are formed in the substrate of strip 13 in a conventional manner such as by silver chloride deposition. As shown in Figures 2 and 3, border traces 29 are exposed on the outer side 15 of strip 13. However, border traces 29 are insulated from inner side 17 by portions of nonconductive strip 13. Harness 11 has a plurality of conductive leads 31. Leads 31 are formed also of a conductive ink such as silver chloride in the same manner of border traces 29. Leads 31 also do not extend through the entire thickness of strip 13. Conductive leads 31 may be exposed to outer side 15, but they must not be exposed to adhesive side 17. Leads 31 extend from a connector terminal 33 which is a conventional connector for electrically connecting harness 11 to a ECG monitor. One of the leads 31 will extend to each of the border traces 29 to electrically and separately connect border traces 29 to connector terminal 33. A plurality of electrode pads 35 are employed with strip 13. Electrode pads 35 may be of a conventional type commonly used for ECG measurements. However, they need no terminal for connecting to an alligator clip as in the prior art. Each electrode pad 35 as shown in Figure 2 has a conventional conductive layer 36 which may be a conductive ink deposited on a film. A conductive gel 37 is coated on the inner side of conductive layer 36 to electrically connect skin of the patient to conductive layer 36. Gel 37 is sufficiently thick so as to extrude through portions of slots 21, 23, 25, 27. Also, some of the gel 37 will contact border traces 29. Preferably gel 37 contains an adhesive component so as to adhere to border traces 29 and to the skin of a patient. As shown in Figure 1, electrode pads 35 are much smaller in side to side dimension than the length L of each of the slots 21, 23, 25, 27. Electrode pads 35 are shown as being square, having a length and width the same, although the configuration could vary and could be circular as well. One of the length and width dimensions of electrode pad 35 is preferably greater than the width W, but both dimensions are less than slot length L. Electrode pads 35 can be positioned at a variety of points along the length L of the slots 21, 23, 25, 27. Furthermore, because of the greater vertical dimension of each electrode pad 35 than the width W, each electrode pad 35 will extend completely across of each slot 21, 23, 25 and 27. Not all of the leads 31 lead to one of the slots 21, 23, 25 or 27 in the preferred embodiment. Rather, two of the leads 31 lead to fixed electrodes 41. Electrodes 41 are integrally formed with strip 13 and have coatings of conductive gel. Removing backing layer 19 exposes inner sides of fixed electrodes 41 to the skin of the patient. In use, backing layer 19 will be peeled off and strip 13 placed on the chest of the patient in a desired orientation. Adhesive layer 17 will bond strip 13 to the patient. Fixed electrodes 41 will be placed at the desired anatomical position. The technician will then place each of the electrode pads 35 into position. First the technician will remove a backing layer (not shown) on each pad 35 to expose gel 37. The technician will then place pads 35 at desired points along the length L of each of the slots 21, 23, 25, 27. When doing so, a portion of the gel 37 will come into electrical contact with the patient's skin as well as coming into electrical contact with border traces 27. Preferably each electrode pad 35 will extend across the full width W of each of the slots 21, 23, 25 and 27. The technician then connects connector terminal 33 to an ECG monitor and conducts the test. For hospital use, normally harness 11 will be disposable. The invention has significant advantages. Being prewired, the harness eliminates inadvertently switching of leads which can occur with the conventional prior art ECG technique. The harness will fit a variety of patient sizes because of the elongated slots. The orientation of the slots and the configuration of the strip assures fairly precise anatomical positioning of the electrodes. This speeds up the process greatly for emergency applications, and reduces the level of skill required for the technician. It also allows nonprofessionals to administer an ECG test at home. The harness is inexpensive and may be disposable.

Claims: A harness (11) which is positionable on a chest of a patient and capable of being used with electrode pads (35) which have conductive inner sides (36) for making electrocardiographic measurements, the harness (11) comprising: a strip (13) of a nonconductive film having a plurality of slots (21, 23, 25, 27) positioned for placement at selected anatomical positions; a connector terminal (33) at one edge of the strip (13) for connection to a monitoring device; a plurality of electrically conductive border traces (29), each formed on the strip (13) and extending at least partially around one of the slots (21, 23, 25, 27), the border traces (29) being insulated from an inner side of the strip (13) to avoid contact with the skin of the patient; a plurality of conductive leads (31) formed on the strip (13), each leading from the connector terminal (33), at least some of the leads leading to the border traces (29) to electrically connect the border traces with the connector terminal; and wherein each of the border traces (29) is exposed on an outer side (15) of the strip (13) for electrical engagement with the conductive inner side (36) of one of the electrode pads (35) which may be selectively placed on the outer side of the strip at least partially extending over one of the slots so as to place the conductive inner side (36) of the electrode pad (35) in electrical contact with one of the border traces and in electrical contact with the skin of the patient. The harness according to claim 1 wherein: at least one (21) of the slots is elongated with a length longer than a width, referred to as an elongated slot, allowing selective placement of one of the electrode pads (35) along the length of the elongated slot. The harness according to claim 1 wherein the strip (13) has an inner side containing an adhesive layer (17) for adhering to skin of a patient. The harness according to claim 1 wherein: at least one (21) of the slots is elongated with a length longer than a width, referred to as an elongated slot; and each of the electrode pads (35) has a width and a length, both of which are shorter than the length of the elongated slot, allowing selective placement of one of the electrode pads along the length of the elongated slot. The harness according to claim 1 wherein the inner side of the electrode pads (35) comprises an electrically conductive gel (37). The harness according to claim 1 wherein at least one of the dimensions of the pads (35) is greater than the widths of the slots (21, 23, 25, 27).

Inventors: MAHONEY STEVEN A, MAHONEY, STEVEN A.
Applicants: KONINKL PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NV, KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V.
Application year: 1997
Main classification: A61B5
IPC codes: A61B5