About QRS Diagnostic's EKG Analysis Program 


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The narrative ECG interpretation algorithm available with QRS Universal ECG™ and Biolog™ diagnostic ECG devices was developed in the early 1990s by Cardionics, S.A. of Brussels, Belgium, in conjunction with the University of Louvaine Medical School. In the late 1990s, the New Cardionics ECG Algorithm was licensed to Micromedical Industries, Australia, which was subsequently purchased by QRS Diagnostic, LLC, Minneapolis, MN USA in 2003.

In 1991, clinical researchers evaluated nine popular ECG algorithms compared to eight cardiologists relative to a standardized database of ECG tracings. The results showed that the original Louvaine algorithm had:

  • The best total accuracy of all the algorithms (77.3%).
  • The best in correctly diagnosing Myocardial Infarction (82.1%).
  • The second best in diagnosing Ventricular Hypertrophy, which were both better than the respective combined scores of the eight cardiologists.

    Control Patients
    N=382 
         		 Ventricular Hypertrophy
    N=291    		 Myocardial Infarction
    N=547    		 Total Accuracy
    N=1220
    Padova   89.8  61.3    47.1   62.0   
    Nagoya-Fukuda  89.3  42.6   63.7   65.6   
    IBM Medis  91.3  49.4   62.5   67.6   
    HP (Agilent)    93.5  51.0   64.5   69.3   
    Glasgow  94.0  51.0   67.7   69.7  
    GE (Marquette)  86.3  61.1   69.7   69.8  
    Means   97.1  42.5   67.2   69.8  
    Hannover  86.6  72.1   79.0   75.8  
    Louvaine  91.5  67.0   82.1*   77.3*  
    8 Cardiologists Combined Scores  97.1  64.4   80.3   79.2  

    The numbers in the table above represent the percent correct diagnosis.

In 1994, clinical researchers evaluated the New Cardionics algorithm using the same methodology as in the clinical study above. The results were compared to the other eleven programs tested (Louvaine VCG, Marquette ECG, Hewlett-Packard ECG, Medis IBM ECG, Nagoya-Fukuda ECG, Lyon VCG, Glassgow ECG, Porto VCG, Padova ECG, Means VCG, and Means ECG). The results showed that the New Cardionics program had:

  • The highest score of total and partial accuracy at 73%.
  • The second highest rating for distinguishing between normal and abnormal patients 94.8%.
  • The highest sensitivity to AMI (Anterior Myocardial Infarction) at 81.8% with only 3.6% false positives for non-AMI cases.
  • The second highest sensitivity to detection of IMI (Inferior Myocardial Infarction) at 73.4%.