Recognizing And Reducing Ecg Artifacts - Cardiac Science Eclipse Premier Operating Instructions Manual

Chapter 10
Troubleshooting

Recognizing and Reducing ECG Artifacts

Figure 10-1
Somatic Tremor and Patient
Movement Artifact
10-4
Eclipse Operating Instructions
PROBLEM
REDUCED PERFORMANCE MODE
Paper speed erratic. ECG printouts have
unexpected breaks in the waveforms at
random intervals. Breaks are accompanied
by vertical dashed lines, header/footer
information and lead designators.
Report is printing "STAT" in the Patient ID
field of the report.
"OVERLOAD" message
Defibrillating the patient will interfere with the Eclipse Premier sensors. This may
result in loss of the trace or erratic trace deflections. An "OVERLOAD" message alerts
you that waveforms may not be accurate.
A broken wire in a patient lead or a poorly applied sensor may also cause an
"OVERLOAD" message. This condition must be corrected before the overload
condition clears.
Rapid, large and erratic deflections
A broken wire in the patient lead or a poorly applied sensor may cause rapid, large and
erratic trace deflections.
Irregular frequency or amplitude
Patient movement and muscle tremor may result in abnormal traces. To minimize this
artifact, toggle the artifact filter to 40 Hz with the "9" machine control key.
In addition, try to gain the patient's cooperation in staying very relaxed and still.
Sometimes, somatic tremor is unavoidable but its effects may be minimized by having
the patient place his/her hands under the buttocks.
PROBABLE CAUSE
- 50 mm/s paper speed selected. Reduce
paper speed to 25 mm/s.
- Artifact filter is set to 40 Hz (on). Change
setting to 150 Hz.
- Current Custom Lead setting is Frank.
Use another Custom Lead setting or
reduce paper speed and turn off Artifact
Filter.
- No ID number was entered for the patient.
070-1149-01 B