Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34235006›Full record

ArticleIEEE journal of translational engineering in health and medicine2021

Combining Optical Character Recognition With Paper ECG Digitization.

Shambavi Ganesh, Pamela T Bhatti, Mhmtjamil Alkhalaf, Shishir Gupta, Amit J Shah, Srini Tridandapani

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in IEEE journal of translational engineering in health and medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
1.4field-weighted citation impact, top 17% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Shambavi GaneshSchool of Electrical and Computer EngineeringGeorgia Institute of TechnologyAtlantaGA30332USA.
Pamela T BhattiSchool of Electrical and Computer EngineeringGeorgia Institute of TechnologyAtlantaGA30332USA.
Mhmtjamil AlkhalafDepartment of EpidemiologyRollins School of Public HealthEmory UniversityAtlantaGA30322USA.
Shishir GuptaDepartment of EpidemiologyRollins School of Public HealthEmory UniversityAtlantaGA30322USA.
Amit J ShahDepartment of EpidemiologyRollins School of Public HealthEmory UniversityAtlantaGA30322USA.
Srini TridandapaniDepartment of RadiologyUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamBirminghamAL35249USA.
Emory University · USGeorgia Institute of Technology · USUniversity of Alabama at Birmingham · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveWe propose a MATLAB-based tool to convert electrocardiography (ECG) waveforms from paper-based ECG records into digitized ECG signals that is vendor-agnostic. The tool is packaged as an open source standalone graphical user interface (GUI) based application. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: To reach this objective we: (1) preprocess the ECG records, which includes skew correction, background grid removal and linear filtering; (2) segment ECG signals using Connected Components Analysis (CCA); (3) implement Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for removal of overlapping ECG lead characters and for interfacing of patients' demographic information with their research records or their electronic medical record (EMR). The ECG digitization results are validated through a reader study where clinically salient features, such as intervals of QRST complex, between the paper ECG records and the digitized ECG records are compared.

resultsComparison of clinically important features between the paper-based ECG records and the digitized ECG signals, reveals intra- and inter-observer correlations of 0.86-0.99 and 0.79-0.94, respectively. The kappa statistic was found to average at 0.86 and 0.72 for intra- and inter-observer correlations, respectively.

conclusionThe clinically salient features of the ECG waveforms such as the intervals of QRST complex, are preserved during the digitization procedure. Clinical and Healthcare Impact: This open-source digitization tool can be used as a research resource to digitize paper ECG records thereby enabling development of new prediction algorithms to risk stratify individuals with cardiovascular disease, and/or allow for development of ECG-based cardiovascular diagnoses relying upon automated digital algorithms.

Indexed as

ElectrocardiographySignal Processing, Computer-AssistedAlgorithmsElectronic Health RecordsHumansconnected component analysisElectrocardiographyelectronic medical recordoptical character recognition

Identifiers

PMID34235006
PMCPMC8248903
OpenAlexW3165525368

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.