Integrated software suite for magnetocardiographic data analysis - A proposal based on an interactive programming environment
Objectives: This paper describes an integrated software suite (ISS) dor the processing of magnetocardiographic (MCG) recordings obtained with super-conducting multi-channel systems having different characteristics. We aimed to develop a highly flexible suite including toolboxes for current MCG applicants, organizations, organized consistently with an open architecture that allows function integrations and upgrades with minimal modifications, the suite was designed for the compliance not only of physicists and engineers but also of physicians, who have a different professional profile and are accustomed to retrieved information in different ways. Methods: The MCG-ISS was designed to work with all common graphical user interface operative systems. MALTAB was chosen as the interactive programming environment (IPE), and the software was developed to achieve usability, interactivity, reliability, modularity, expanibility, interoperability, adaptability and graphics style tailoring. Three user, already experienced in MCG data analysis, have intensively tested MCG-ISS for six months. A great amount of MCG data on normal subject and patients was used to assess software performances in-term of user compliance and confidence and total analysis time. Results: The proposed suite is an all-in-one analysis tool that succeeded in speeding MCG data analysis up to about 55% with respect to standard reference routines; it consequently enhanced analysis performance and user compliance. Conclusions: Those results, together with the MCG-ISS advantage of being independent on the acquisition system, suggest that software suites like the proposed one could uphold a wider diffusion of MCG as a diagnostic tool in the clinical setting.
magnetocardiographic data analysis integrated software suite (iss) interactive programming environment (ipe) object-oriented programming user-machine interaction