Windows software for cardiac electrophysiology studies and ablation monitoring

A system for cardiac electrophysiology (EP) studies consisting of a Windows software package, a standard 120 MHz Pentium PC with a high-performance video card and a data acquisition card has been developed during this study. The system is capable of real time data acquisition and storage of 24 channels with simultaneous display of 1-16 arbitrarily chosen channels at a sampling rate of 500 Hz. It can be used clinically in electrophysiology studies and during catheter radio-frequency ablation treatment for monitoring the ablation and its effects. The built-in ablation monitoring capability enables combined EP study and ablation treatment, thus helping to reduce exposure times and the total time needed per patient. For clinical use the software includes versatile tools for data analysis and reduction. Our system has been developed in association with Department of Cardiology of Tampere University Hospital and has been in regular clinical use there.