An FPGA-based system for real-time electrocardiographic detection of STEMI

Computerized interpretation of the electrocardiogram (ECG) is increasingly used to assist clinician experts to reduce times to reperfusion for patients suspected of ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). In this context, we have developed a system based on Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for automatic detection of STEMI, using the MicroBlaze soft processor from Xilinx. More particularly, this work aims the implementation of an efficient knowledge-based 4-step algorithm for STEMI diagnosis, using the 12-lead ECG. We have used the Nexys 3 board from Digilent as development tool, and different ECG databases from Physiobank, containing the conventional 12-lead ECG. The implementation performance was tested mainly with 8 records of 12-lead ECG, i.e. 96 ECG signals, providing a sensitivity of 62.5%, with a QRS detection reaching an accuracy of 99.41%. The implementation occupied 97% of the slices of the used FPGA, namely the Spartan 6 XC6SLX16 from Xilinx. To our knowledge, this successful FPGA-based implementation for STEMI detection is novel and authentic.