Integrated platform for continuous monitoring of children with suspected cardiac arrhythmias

Children with cardiac arrhythmias constitute one of the most difficult problems in cardiology both in terms of diagnosis and management. In such cases continuous monitoring of ECG vital signs and environmental conditions can significantly improve the identification of a possible arrhythmia. In this study we present the design and development of a system which enables the continuous monitoring of children, from the hardware and software perspective. The system is able to carry out real-time acquisition and transmission of ECG signals, and facilitate an alarm scheme able to identify possible arrhythmias so as to notify the on-call doctor and the relatives of the child that an event may be happening. In-house monitoring of a child is performed using a sensor network able to record and transmit ECG and the living conditions, while outside the house, monitoring is performed through a GPRS/UMTS enabled device. The transmitted information can be accessed through a web based platform which facilitates basic an electronic patient record module and continuous display of monitoring information of the patient. The system design and development steps are finished and the initial tests performed on healthy volunteers proved to be very promising.