Multichannel measurement of biosignals with parallel data processing

Investigators: Ján Zelinka, Peter Kaľavský

A new subsystem for long-term multi-channel measurement, monitoring and simultaneous recording of measured biological signals was included in the software of the ProCardio 8 system. It is written in C ++ and uses a parallel processing technique that decomposes running tasks into parallel executed modules working in assigned threads. Individual modules such as data reading, data processing (scaling, filtering, conversion of signals to leads), their graphical display and writing to disk, as well as monitoring the correct operation of the device (power status, memory filling, electrical isolation of the patient) communicate with each other via messages containing data about a given processing state (pipeline), which solves the synchronization problem, which is one of the basic problems of parallelization. This approach allows the use of cheaper equipment, e.g. multi-core laptops with slower processors and less memory without the risk of congestion and data loss. For the user, the software provides flexible operation and rich options for changing the parameters of data processing and visualization during the ongoing measurement. The recording subsystem can be used within the ProCardio 8 system or separately.

Fig. 1: Example of monitoring the contacts of the sensing electrodes (left) and the recorded signals (right) in a 128-channel ECG measurement. Measurement and display parameters are displayed and set using the control panel on the right side of the screen.

Related projects:
• VEGA 2/0071/16 “Modeling of the electric field of the heart to investigate the manifestations of functional and structural changes of the myocardium in the measured ECG signals.”
• APVV-14-0875 “Non-invasive localization of ectopic ventricular arrhythmias using ECG mapping and its use for causal treatment.”

Publications:

KAĽAVSKÝ, P. – TYŠLER, M. Real-time visualization of multichannel ECG signals using the parallel CPU threads. In Lékař a technika : Biomedicínské inženýrství a informatika, 2014, vol. 44, no. 4, p. 5-9. (2014 – SCOPUS). ISSN 0301-5491
KADANEC, J. – ZELINKA, J. – BUKOR, G. – TYŠLER, M. ProCardio 8 – system for high resolution ECG mapping. In MEASUREMENT 2017 : Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Measurement. Editors: J. Maňka, M. Tyšler, V. Witkovský, I. Frollo. – Bratislava, Slovakia : Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2017, p. 263-266. ISBN 978-80-972629-0-7.