Patent Document ID: 4589420
Application ID: 06630782
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An apparatus for automatic heartbeat rhythm analysis of ECG signals comprising: means for digitizing said ECG signals; means responsive to said digitized ECG signals for automatically detecting heartbeats including means for analyzing said detected heartbeats; means for assessing the relative timing of said detected heartbeats relative to prior heartbeats; means responsive to said analysis for classifying each of said detected heartbeats as one of a plurality of beat types, said plurality of beat types including a plurality of sequences of beat types, said classifying means further comprising: first stage means responsive to said timing means for automatically classifying each of said detected heartbeats as one of a first plurality of single heartbeat types; and state machine means responsive to said first stage classification for automatically determining when said detected heartbeats are part of one of said plurality of sequences of heartbeat types and for classifying said detected heartbeats so determined as belonging to one of said sequence type plurality, said apparatus further comprising: means responsive to said classifying means for automatically forming and storing class records, at least one for each of said plurality of beat types including said plurality of sequences of beat types; and means for displaying all or a portion of preselected ones of said class records.