Prime ECG highlighted at ACEP

Dateline: 31 December 2008

The Prime ECG by Heartscape, The Gist:

The Prime ECG doesn’t just leave your father’s ECG in the dust, it drives right over it and never looks back. The motto behind this device: “more IS more”. If 12 leads are good, imagine what we can do with 80.

This is a bit akin to the leap made by radiologists a decade or so ago when multirow CT scanners began replacing standard radiographs for evaluating the chest, face, spine, etc... Just as the radiologists sometimes get bogged down by the amount of data presented in finer imaging studies the same could happen to the average EP in a hectic setting when faced with multiple 80-lead ECGs.

The Prime system tries to alleviate this with 3-D mapping that is color-coded to show areas of concern. Heartscape boasts increased detection of inferior MI’s as well as MI in the setting of LBBB and has multiple papers to support its use. While providing useful data in the right patients, if Prime ECGs were implemented in my ED I’d be a bit concerned about overuse.

http://www.epmonthly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=404&itemid=38