Draft – Heart Diagnostics – DIY ECG/EKG

NOTE: This product is NOT a medical device and is not intended to be used as such or as an accessory to such nor diagnose or treat any conditions.

I was 16 when I was challenged by my father Dr. Shamaa, to architect and code Heart Diagnostics device.  I used my at the time Zenith 8088 processor PC, two 5.25\” floppy drives, no hard drives, 4 color graphics card (CGA), and 128 KB memory – yes that is letter K as in Kilobyte.

NOTE: This product is NOT a medical device and is not intended to be used as such or as an accessory to such nor diagnose or treat any conditions.

Scope:

  • Connect leads to communication serial port
  • Read analog signal
  • Convert signal to digital (A2D)
  • Plot graph
  • Compare input data with predefined values that correspond to different heart malfunction charts

How you can do this many years later at home?

Today, you can DIY the first four bullet points at home with no to little technical experience.  Last bullet point requires advanced/heavy coding and is not in scope of this article.  Please note that this is single lead heart monitor.

Requirements:

  • Arduino

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  • AD8232 chip to measure the electrical activity of the heart.

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  • Leads\"\"
  • Sensor connectors\"\"

Understanding the heart:

In general terms, lets look at what an ECG is representing and how we\’re able to sense it. The ECG is separated into two basic Intervals, the PR Interval and the QT Interval.

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Where to place leads?

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