The Use of a Computerized ECG Interpretation System in an Epidemiologic Study))

Abstract

ECG tracings of 10,059 men aged 40 and over first participating in 1963 in the Israel Ischemic Heart Disease Project were interpreted by computer at the Instrumentation Field Station in Washington. The computer, using criteria developed by the Field Station, reported a high prevalence of ischemic heart disease. Computer interpretation of a sample group of ECGs was compared with that of a group of cardiologists using the same criteria. It was concluded that a computer diagnosis of normal could be accepted, but those readings denoted as abnormal by the computer had to be reinterpreted by cardiologists using uniform criteria that were modified as a result of their combined clinical experience. The final analysis of these tracings together with a sample of computer normals showed a much lower prevalence of ischemic heart disease. Differences between magnetic and standard ECG tracings are described and the advantages of computer interpretation indicated.