Improve Real-Time ECG Monitoring With High-Performance WPF Charts

Cardiovascular monitoring charts, including ECG and EKG applications, require stability and reliability. For PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) and MedTech clients, the challenge is capturing that enhanced chart performance even on smaller hardware devices, such as mobile phones. This requires a cross-platform solution.

ECG Chart Explained

An electrocardiogram (ECG), also known as an EKG, is a medical monitor used to check the heart’s rhythm in real-time. While it may be a simple test, it isn’t necessarily easy to visualize and maintain data stability. This is especially the case when using multiple devices or applications simultaneously.

Real-time WPF Charts visualization of FIFO data and waveforms can be used to draw real-time chart solutions for medical device monitoring, including ECG/EKG graphs. These can be used to monitor heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse, SPO2 blood oxygenation, and volumetric flow of other vital signs.

With the right ECG chart, you can successfully display the chaotic and uncoordinated electrical activity in the atria, absence of distinct P waves, and irregular R-R intervals.

ECG Chart Examples

Whether tracking the “sawtooth” pattern of atrial flutter or the “irregularly irregular” rhythm and absent P waves of atrial fibrillation, the below ECG chart examples support a diagnosis of heart conditions. ECGs show P-waves, QRS complexes, and T-waves, with the shape, timing and spacing distinguishing between a normal and abnormal ECG chart.

Atrial Flutter ECG

An Atrial Flutter ECG shows a distinctive sawtooth pattern of flutter waves in the atria, indicating a fast and regular electrical rhythm.

Ventricular Tachycardia ECG

A Ventricular Tachycardia ECG shows a rapid heart rhythm of over 100 beats per minute. Characteristic features on the waveform include at least three consecutive wide QRS complexes, where the beats are fast and have a similar shape.

ECG Axis Deviation Chart

The ECG Axis Deviation Chart shows the normal range of the heart’s electrical axis alongside both Left Axis Deviation (LAD) or Right Axis Deviation (RAD).

• Normal Axis: -30° and +90°
• Left Axis Deviation: less than -30°
• Right Axis Deviation: greater than +90°

If there’s a deviation, this highlights to clinicians that further investigations are required to diagnose potential heart problems. This can show a range of cardiovascular conditions, such as left or right ventricular hypertrophy or heart attacks.

Common Medical ECG Chart Limitations & Workarounds

Common limitations for ECG chart rendering include:

Reduced Data Rendering Speed on Smaller Devices

Reduced data efficiency when using smaller devices, such as tablets or mobile phones This can slow down data rendering speeds and hinder medical analysis.

Software solutions, such as those offered by SciChart, deliver high-performance and responsive charts on any browser or device. Even with less processing power, SciChart effortlessly renders high volumes of real-time data – ideal for ECG signal visualization.

Crucially, SciChart’s charts adapt to your screen size with no slow down even on smaller hardware.

Data Handling Issues

With SciChart’s GPU accelerated ECG charts, you can render millions of data-points at 60 FPS with zero frame drops.

You may also experience an inability to handle multiple data streams. With SciChart, you can support a dashboard with hundreds of real-time charts.

Filtering Out Artifacts & Noise

In an ideal world, ECG tracing would only pick up on the biometrics that matter to streamline the diagnosing process. However, as with many medical instruments, that’s simply not the case. ECG signals are highly susceptible to ‘noise’ interference from muscle tremors, poor skin-electrode contact and even electromagnetic interference from smartphones.

While many of these are issues that medical practitioners can address, by ensuring phones are placed away from the ECG sensors, what, if anything, can be done to the ECG visualization to improve precision and accuracy?

You may think that filtering is the answer, but this could wipe out potentially crucial waveform data that’s integral to a diagnosis.

However, with SciChart, there are filters specifically designed to target noise, including Low Pass and High Pass filters. Thanks to our Filters API, you have complete control and flexibility over what’s filtered and what’s not.

Dynamic WPF Visualization of ECG signals in Realtime

Cardea Labs needed a software solution with a smooth user interface that was also portable. The solution had to enable increased functionality, including overlaid information, while still being user-friendly.

SciChart’s extensive charting examples were used to create the FIFO functionality required, which generated a real-time scrolling ECG monitor. The session window was upgraded to make use of the pan, zoom, and scroll functions, making the UI intuitive and user-friendly.

SciChart’s high-performance capabilities could handle 250 points per second in real-time even when being used on smaller portable devices.

[View More Case Studies]

Real-time Waveform Visualization of Cardiovascular Data

Avicena Heart attempted to use other commercial and open-source iOS Charting Software to plot Waveforms in real time but found it deficient in many ways:

• Inability to handle multiple data streams
• Difficulty handling real-time high bandwidth data
• Little to no customization
• Poor UI

SciChart’s exceptional performance of large datasets can render over a million points in a line at interactive frame rates, handling real-time data streams easily.

Native code, GPU-acceleration and a high-performance iOS chart library, generated the ultimate data rendering efficiency. Avicena could now handle up to 90 data series simultaneously.

Rich Chart Annotations API enabled the creation of fully interactive, customizable chart annotations as well as change the appearance of the entire chart.

View Full Case Study

High Performance WPF Visualization of ECG Signals

See the full WPF ECG Monitor Chart Demo

Using high-performance charts with endless customizations and flexibility has plenty of real-world benefits. We’ve seen our charts help pave the way for faster and more reliable diagnosis, as well as improving the efficiency of healthcare staff.

With the ability to link multiple charts, or have many traces on one chart control, plus smooth realtime updates, SciChart is perfect for ECG / EKG applications. Our charts are used in healthcare applications across platforms, as well as instrumentation and test devices for the medtech industry.

With SciChart, you can simultaneously shortcut your medical chart development and outperform standard methods of cardiovascular diagnosis.

• Handle high bandwidth multi series data streams
• Bespoke customization
• User friendly interfaces

How Does SciChart Help Improve Efficiency Across Devices?

• Proprietary resampling algorithms to reduce the dataset before drawing
• Immediate mode rendering
• Object pooling
• Resource re-use
• GPU-accelerated rendering
• Advanced vectorization and parallel computing techniques across CPU and GPU hardware
• Native code implementation

Build your ECG / EKG Applications with SciChart today.