Application of Precordial Lead ECG SafOne to Patients with Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence-based Practice

Abstract

Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) is one of the essential cardiac diagnostic tests to record the heart’s electrical activities. However, errors in precordial lead placement causes invalid ECG recordings. The invention of precordial lead ECG SafOne aims to reduce these errors. This study aimed to apply the precordial lead ECG SafOne to patients with cardiovascular diseases and compare it to the standard ECG in relation to the presence of artefacts and placement time duration. This study employed the experimental research design with a post-test-only equivalent control group approach with a sample size of 60 outpatients undergoing an ECG test. Data on artefacts and placement time duration from ECG SafOne and standard ECG were identified and measured. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon test to examine the difference in all the variables collected. The results showed no substantial difference related to the artefacts emerging from ECG SafOne and standard ECG with a p-value of 0.083 (> 0.005). In addition, placement time duration using ECG SafOne is faster than standard ECG (p=0.000). To conclude, ECG SafOne is more practical and efficient than standard ECG. This tool produces ECG recordings with no significant difference from standard ECG. Therefore, ECG SafOne is applicable for electrocardiography recording for patients with cardiovascular diseases. Keywords: cardiovascular diseases, electrocardiography, diagnostic test, SafOne, precordial lead