Reduced electrode electrocardiography system

A method for obtaining a set of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals of the general type comprising synthesising ECG signals by receiving signals from a first group of electrodes connected to predetermined locations on a human body to acquire a first set of ECG signals and deriving at least one further ECG signal using predetermined transformation(s) on said first set of ECG signals or a subset thereof to form a desired set of signals, wherein said first group includes at least electrodes located at the following sites:

• R and L:
• placed on or near the right and left upper limbs respectively;
• and
• Vc:
• placed on the sternum.

A method for obtaining a set of ECG signals of the general type comprising synthesising electrocardiographic (ECG) signals by receiving signals from a first group of electrodes connected to predetermined locations on a human body to acquire a first set of ECG signals and deriving at least one further ECG signal using predetermined transformation(s) on said first set of ECG signals or a subset thereof to form a desired set of signals, wherein said first group includes at least electrodes located at the following sites:

• Vm:
• one of the standard 12 lead electrode sites V4, V5 and V6 (m=4, 5 or 6);
• VnR:
• level with one of the standard electrode sites V4, V5 and V6 (n=4, 5 or 6) on the right midclavicular line, right anterior auxiliary line or right midauxiliary line respectively;
• and
• Vc:
• placed on the sternum.

A method for obtaining a set of electrocardiographic (ECG) signals by:

• receiving signals from a first group of electrodes connected to predetermined locations on a human body to acquire a first set of ECG signals;
• synthesising at least one further ECG signal using predetermined transformation(s) on said first set of ECG signals or a subset thereof to form a synthesised set of ECG signals, each synthesised signal corresponding to a location on the body (hereinafter referred to as the synthesised location);
• detecting the body's posture;
• and
• selecting or modifying the transformations used in said synthesising step on the basis of the detected body posture, so as to reduce posture-induced inaccuracies between each synthesised signal and a real signal that would be measured at the synthesised location in a given posture.