Computer processing of cardiac catheterization data.

The process of extracting information about a series of cases investigated by cardiac catheterization or of analysing the work of one cardiac centre is very time consuming when this has to be done by hand, whereas data stored in a computer are easily available and may be analysed by complex statistical methods. Such analyses may then point to the need for improvements in methods of investigation or lead to increased diagnostic accuracy (Wallace and Rosati, I973). Partial automation of a cardiac catheterization data retrieval system and its trial in a number of hospitals was, therefore, considered worth while. A method for on-line analysis of signals obtained during cardiac catheterization has been described (Henry et al., I968), but it was decided that a fully automated system was not justified at this stage. A simple set of forms was produced so that data could be entered directly by the cardiologist after the investigation and the forms sent to the computer centre for processing. Hospitals wishing to use the system did not have to buy expensive equipment or modify their cardiac catheterization procedure appreciably. It was considered important that the work load on the cardiologist should not be increased and that the computer must produce an acceptable cardiac catheterization report. In addition, a copy of the data entry form had to be easily interpretable by the