GE CARESCAPE - Arrhythmia monitoring; Arrhythmia monitoring warnings

ECG
ProblemSolution
●TheECGsignalistooweakforthemonitorto
detect.
●Themonitorisdetectingatrialpacemakerartifact
ornon-QRSfeaturesasbeats.
Ifthemonitorisalarmingforlowheartrateor
asystole,assesstheQRSamplitude:
●ViewallECGleadstoassesstheamplitudeofthe
QRScomplexes.ToensurecorrectHRreadings,
a0.5mVQRSamplitudeisrecommendedfora
normalECGsignal.IftheQRSamplitudedrops
below0.5mVoranabnormalQRSwidthoccurs
(morethan120ms),QRSdetectionmaybe
reduced,leadingtofalseasystolealarms.
●Ifnecessary,repreptheskinandrepositionthe
electrodes.
●RelearnECG.
Arrhythmiamonitoring
Arrhythmiamonitoringwarnings
WARNING
VFib/VTachshouldnotbeconsideredasubstitutefortheV
Tacharrhythmiaalarm.EffortstolowertheVTachalarmlevel
canresultinmissedventriculartachycardiaalarms.
WARNING—LOSSORDETERIORATIONOFARRHYTHMIADETECTION—
Automatedarrhythmiaanalysisprogramsmayincorrectly
identifythepresenceorabsenceofanarrhythmia.A
physicianmustthereforeinterpretthearrhythmiainformation
inconjunctionwithotherclinicalndings.Pleasetakespecial
noteofthefollowingECGwaveformconditions:
●Noisywaveforms.NoisyportionsofECGwaveformsare
typicallyexcludedfromanalysis.Theexclusionsare
necessarytoreducetheoccurrenceofinaccuratebeat
interpretationsand/orrhythmalarms.Iftheexcludednoisy
portionsoftheECGwaveformcontaintruearrhythmia
events,thoseeventsmayremainundetectedbythe
system.
●Beatamplitudeandduration.Accuratedetectionand
interpretationofbeatsbecomesincreasinglydifcultas
theamplitudeand/ordurationofthosebeatsapproach
thedesignlimitsoftheanalysisprogram.Thus,asbeats
becomeextremelywideornarrow,orespeciallyasbeats
becomesmall,arrhythmiainterpretationperformancemay
degrade.
●Othermorphologyconsiderations.Automatedarrhythmia
detectionalgorithmsaredesignedfundamentallytodetect
signicantchangesinQRSmorphology.Ifanarrhythmia
eventispresentanddoesnotexhibitasignicantchange
fromthepatient’spredominantmorphology,itispossible
forthoseeventstoremainundetectedbythesystem.
2062971-001CARESCAPEModularMonitors175