Microprocessor-Based System to ECG Monitoring Through Internet

Abstract

This work presents a patient monitoring system which comprises a portable device, a microprocessor-based Internet server and software running on a remote computer. The developed system samples and sends the patient’s ECG waveforms over the Internet. At the remote computer, the ECG is presented on the screen in real time to be analyzed by a health professional. The portable device connected to the patient samples two ECG leads. The samples are sent to the microprocessor- based Internet server via RF (Bluetooth). Bluetooth was chosen because it operates on ISM band, presenting low power and low cost. The Internet server (based on the eZ80190 - Zilog) receives (via Bluetooth), encapsulates and transmits the ECG signals as well as controls the data flow. The ECG samples are packed into RTP (Real Time Protocol). The remote computer receives and unpacks the RTP packets to display the ECG on the screen. The software for Windows OS written in C++ also calculates the other ECG leads. To assess the system performance, four different communication topologies were simulated. Parameters related to the quality of the transmission are presented: Jitter and loss rate.