The feasibility of a serial 12‑lead ECG wireless patch in the hospital setting

Background

Chest pain is the second most common reason to present to the emergency department in the United States, and the ECG is a first-line diagnostic tool for myocardial ischemia assessment. For patients with ongoing symptoms or unclear initial ECGs, guidelines recommend performing multiple standard ECGs at 15–30-min intervals during the first 1–2 h, which improves acute coronary syndrome (ACS) detection by 15 % and accelerates triage of high-risk ACS patients. However, obtaining serial ECG is not consistently practiced due to overcrowding and the limited technical abilities of current 12‑lead ECG machines. This study aimed to evaluate an FDA-approved wireless 12‑lead ECG patch for serial cardiac monitoring in the hospital setting.

Methods

Prospectively, ECG patch was applied in the Mason-Likar electrode configuration after obtaining consent. The patch remained in place for at least one hour. Clinical Utility of the ECGs was categorized from 1 to 3: 1 = uninterpretable, 2 = borderline, and 3 = interpretable.

Results

Among hospitalized cardiac patients, 28 consented to wear the ECG patch for at least one hour and patients were free to ambulate during the study. Most (70 %) patients were in sinus rhythm, and an episode of asymptomatic TMI was captured. The clinical utility of the ECGs (n = 364) was mostly interpretable, 64 % (n = 231), while 15 % (n = 55) were uninterpretable and 18 % (n = 65) were borderline. Most (69 %) preferred the patch, while 12 % preferred telemetry. The hospitalized cardiac patients reported significantly better ability to ambulate with the ECG patch (Z = −3.607, p < 0.001).

Conclusion

Thus, this experiment demonstrated that the ECG patch provides quality serial ECG monitoring and captures TMI of hospitalized cardiac patients without increasing burden.