ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) is the gold-standard ECG method used by cardiologists. However, accurate electrode placement is difficult and time consuming, and can lead to incorrect interpretation. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to accurately reconstruct a full 12-lead ECG from a reduced lead set. METHODS: Five-electrode placement was used to generate leads I, II, III, aVL, aVR, aVF and V2. These seven leads served as inputs to the focus time-delay neural network (FTDNN) which derived the remaining five precordial leads (V1, V3-V6). An online archived medical database containing 549 cases of ECG recordings was used to train, validate and test the FTDNN. RESULTS: After removing outliers, the reconstructed leads exhibited correlation values of between 0.8609 and 0.9678 as well as low root mean square error values of between 123 µV and 245 µV across all cases, for both healthy controls and cardiovascular disease subgroups except the bundle branch block disease subgroup. The results of the FTDNN method compared favourably to those of prior lead reconstruction methods. CONCLUSIONS: A standard 12-lead ECG was successfully reconstructed with high quantitative correlations from a reduced lead set using only five electrodes, of which four were placed on the limbs. Less reliance on precordial leads will aid in the reduction of electrode placement errors, ultimately improving ECG lead accuracy and reduce the number of cases that are incorrectly diagnosed.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalences in Sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of eligible HIV-infected people being initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and retained in HIV-care is currently far from adequate. Consequently, many people continue present with advanced immunosuppression at public health facilities, often with undiagnosed opportunistic infections (OIs). METHODS: In this context, mHealth was the innovation chosen to assist Eye Clinical Officers in early diagnosis of HIV-related diseases having eye manifestations in a rural hospital in Thyolo, Southern Malawi. RESULTS: The mTeleophthalmology program began in October 2013, but was stopped prematurely due to organizational and technological barriers that compromised its feasibility. CONCLUSION: Sharing these barriers might be useful to inform the design of similar innovations in other resource-limited settings with a high HIV prevalence and a dearth of eye specialists with capacity to diagnose HIV-related retinopathies.
