The history, hotspots, and trends of electrocardiogram.
The electrocardiogram (ECG) has broad applications in clinical diagnosis and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. Many researchers have contributed to its progressive development. To commemorate those pioneers, and to better study and promote the use of ECG, we reviewed and present here a systematic introduction about the history, hotspots, and trends of ECG. In the historical part, information including the invention, improvement, and extensive applications of ECG, such as in long QT syndrome (LQTS), angina, and myocardial infarction (MI), are chronologically presented. New technologies and applications from the 1990s are also introduced. In the second part, we use the bibliometric analysis method to analyze the hotspots in the field of ECG-related research. By using total citations and year-specific total citations as our main criteria, four key hotspots in ECG-related research were identified from 11 articles, including atrial fibrillation, LQTS, angina and MI, and heart rate variability. Recent studies in those four areas are also reported. In the final part, we discuss the future trends concerning ECG-related research. The authors believe that improvement of the ECG instrumentation, big data mining for ECG, and the accuracy of diagnosis and application will be areas of continuous concern.
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China ; State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
Xiang-Lin
XL
Yang
Institute for Medical Humanities, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Guo-Zhen
GZ
Liu
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Yun-Hai
YH
Tong
State Key Laboratory of Space Medicine Fundamentals and Application, China Astronaut Research and Training Center, Beijing, China.
Hong
H
Yan
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Zhi
Z
Xu
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Qi
Q
Chen
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Xiang
X
Liu
Institute for Medical Humanities, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China.
Hong-Hao
HH
Zhang
PKU Healthcare IT Co., Ltd., Beijing, China.
Hong-Bo
HB
Wang
Key Laboratory of Machine Perception (Ministry of Education), School of Electronics Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Shao-Hua
SH
Tan
Electrocardiogram; History; Hotspots; Review; Trends