[Automated analysis of electrocardiograms at rest: present status (author's transl)]

Computer interpretation of electrocardiograms was developed twenty years ago and is now routinely performed in the United States, where 9 different programs are being used. Depending on diagnosis and program, computer interpretation shows an 80-100% correlation with human interpretation. The systems provide an aid to diagnosis in preventive medicine and in hospitals without cardiologists, but since interpretations are standardized they are also useful in cardiology units, where they can be used to build up data banks, compare repeat ECGs with clinical findings and thus ultamately perfect electrocardiographic criteria. The use of this technique in Europe remains limited. In France, only two centers possess routine equipment. This feable diffusion is partly due to the cost of computer analysis, which can only compete with that of human interpretation if each system performs a sufficient number of ECGs.