Computer recognition of cardiac arrhythmias.

The current status of systems for computer recognition of cardiac arrhythmias for routine clinical electrocardiography and for rhythm monitoring has been presented. The goal is to approach the pattern recognition capabilities of the human observer and to add the advantages of the computational prowess and indefatigability of the digital computer. The accuracy of the methods obviously depends on the population studied; excellent results in screening of normals contrast with poorer achievement in patients with complex arrhythmias.