Main description:

The book is divided in 4 parts. In the first one, the importance of the analysis of the cardiac dynamics using the ambulatory monitoring technique is presented. The second part contains the description of foundations of impedance cardiography (ICG), the models used to describe the ICG technique and the description of available systems for ambulatory monitoring of cardiac hemodynamics. The third part is devoted to the validation of the ambulatory ICG method, the verification of the quality of long term ICG recordings and the discussion of the limitations of this technique. In the last part, some clinical and research applications of the ICG ambulatory monitoring are presented. The simultaneous recordings of electrocardiogram (ECG) and ICG in the transient cardiac arrhythmia events illustrate the potential applications of that method for quantitative analysis of hemodynamics when the implementation of the stationary methods would be either difficult or not possible to do. The book is followed by references, alphabetical index and appendices containing the technical data of the available systems for portable monitoring of cardiac hemodynamics.

Contents:

Preface.- 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Importance of transient changes monitoring.- 1.2 Non-invasive recording of cardiac parameters and its significance.- 1.3 Ambulatory monitoring and implementations of it.- 2 Impedance Cardiography.- 2.1 A note on the history of impedance cardiography.- 2.2 The origin of the impedance cardiography signal.- 2.3 Technical aspects of ICG - limitations, errors, and patients' safety.- 2.4 Modifications of ICG and other impedance techniques.- 2.5 Physiological and clinical applications of Impedance Cardiography.- 2.6 The idea of ambulatory impedance cardiography (AICG).- 3 Ambulatory Impedance Cardiography - available system.- 3.1 The ambulatory recorders.- 3.2 The user interface software.- 3.3 Calculation of hemodynamic parameters (automatic procedures).- 4 Validation of the method.- 4.1 The quality of AICG recordings.- 4.2 Comparison between ICG and clinically recognized methods.- 5 Clinical and physiological applications of ambulatory impedance cardiography.- 5.1 Atrial fibrillation.- 5.2 Ventricular extrasystole beats (VEB) monitoring.- Cardiac pacing optimization.- 5.4 Pacemaker syndrome detection.- 5.5 The tilt test.- 5.6 Exercise tests.- 5.7 Other applications.- 6 Conclusions.- 6.1 Clinical importance of the ambulatory ICG.- 6.2 Prospects for impedance ambulatory monitoring.- 7. References.- 8. Appendices.-