Automated interpretation of the 12-lead ECG has remained an underpinning interest in decades of research that has seen a diversity of computing applications in cardiology.

The application of computers in cardiology began in the 1960s with early research focusing on the conversion of analogue ECG signals (voltages) to digital samples. Alongside this, software techniques that automated the extraction of wave measurements and provided basic diagnostic statements, began to emerge. In the years since then there have been many significant milestones which include the widespread commercialisation of 12-lead ECG interpretation software, associated clinical utility and the development of the related regulatory frameworks to promote standardised development.

In the past few years, the research community has seen a significant rejuvenation in the development of ECG interpretation programs. This is evident in the research literature where a large number of studies have emerged tackling a variety of automated ECG interpretation problems. This is largely due to two factors. Specifically, the technical advances, both software and hardware, that have facilitated the broad adoption of modern artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, and, the increasing availability of large datasets that support modern AI approaches.

In this article we provide a very high-level overview of the operation of and approach to the development of early 12-lead ECG interpretation programs and we contrast this to the approaches that are now seen in emerging AI approaches. Our overview is mainly focused on highlighting differences in how input data are handled prior to generation of the diagnostic statement.

几十年来，12 导联心电图的自动解释一直是人们对心脏病学中各种计算应用的主要兴趣所在。

计算机在心脏病学中的应用始于 1960 年代，早期研究侧重于将模拟 ECG 信号（电压）转换为数字样本。除此之外，自动提取波浪测量值并提供基本诊断语句的软件技术开始出现。从那以后的几年里，出现了许多重要的里程碑，包括 12 导联心电图解释软件的广泛商业化、相关的临床实用程序以及相关监管框架的开发以促进标准化发展。

在过去的几年里，研究界在心电图解释程序的开发中看到了显着的复兴。这在研究文献中很明显，其中出现了大量研究来解决各种自动心电图解释问题。这主要是由于两个因素。具体来说，软件和硬件的技术进步促进了现代人工智能 (AI) 技术的广泛采用，以及支持现代人工智能方法的大型数据集的日益普及。

在本文中，我们对早期 12 导联心电图解释程序的操作和开发方法进行了非常高级的概述，并将其与现在在新兴 AI 方法中看到的方法进行了对比。我们的概述主要侧重于强调在生成诊断语句之前如何处理输入数据的差异。