GE MAC 5500 Electrocardiogram

Scott Moxley & Mandi Thomson

BMDV 4131
For: Bill Lewis
April 4, 2014

Table of Contents
Equipment Description............................................................................................... 3
Parameters................................................................................................................. 4
Accuracy and Precision Assurance.............................................................................6
Error Reporting........................................................................................................... 7
Circuitry.................................................................................................................... 11
Safety Features......................................................................................................... 13
Acquisition................................................................................................................ 14
References................................................................................................................ 15

Equipment Description
The Mac 5500 HD is manufactured by GE Medical Systems Information, INC. This
electrocardiograph has a medical device license number of 84026 (Health Canada, 2014) and
was designed to quickly locate bi-ventricular pacemakers in an emergency medical situations
using an above average signal frequency of two kilohertz. It is also used for 3, 6, 12 and 15 lead
routine ECGs on adults and pediatric patients.
The retail price of the MAC 5500 is $6950.00 USD (CITE). The Mac 5500 weighs
approximately 6.8 kg including batteries and roughly 36.8kg with the modular trolley. With the
trolley, the Mac 5500 weighs approximately 36.8kg. The machine itself is 15 inches wide, 13.8
inches deep and 3.7 inches tall. With the modular trolley, the machine is 27 inches wide, 19
inches deep and 37 inches tall. (GE Healthcare, 2011)
The electrocardiograph is by no means a new invention, so there are many competitors on the
market. The Phillips PageWriter TC70, Nihon Kondens Cardiofax V ECG-1550K and Spaclabs
CardioExpress SL12 are some of the ECGs that GE is competing with.
The Mac 5500 is an integrated device with a modular component called the Cam-14 that
acquires the analog ECG signal, converts it into a digital signal and transmits that data to the
Mac 5500 for interpretation. The interpreted information is displayed as precise waveforms on
the screen. (GE Healthcare, 1998)
There are two very important pieces of information that users of the Mac 5500 should be aware
of. The first is that waveform distortions may occur if the system is operated near radio
frequency electromagnetic interference greater than 3 volts per meter, as defined in the EMC
standard EN60601-1-2. The second is that unless tested to verify normal operation, the MAC
5500 should not be stacked with or used adjacent to other equipment. (GE Healthcare, 2011)

Parameters
The Mac 5500 records ECG signals from surface electrodes placed on the patients body. The
analog signals retrieved from the electrodes are digitized in the CAM-14 acquisition module. The
acquisition module also amplifies and performs rudimentary processing on the signals. The
digital data is then split into phrases 16 bits in length and transferred into the MAC 5500. (GE
Healthcare, 1998)

Procedure
Colour coded electrodes (Figure 1) are placed on the patients body.

Figure 1- Standard 12 lead electrode placement guide.

For a standard 12-lead ECG electrode C1 Red is placed at the fourth intercostal space at the right
sterna border and C2 Yellow is placed at the fourth intercostals space at the left sternal border.
C3 Green is centrally placed between C1 and C4. C4 is brown and is placed at the fifth
intercostals space in the mid-clavicular line. C5 is the black lead and is placed level horizontally
with the brown lead at the anterior axillary line C6 is the purple lead and is placed horizontally
level with the purple lead and on the mid-axillary line. L yellow is placed on the left arm,
preferably near the wrist. F green is placed on the left leg, between the ankle and the femur. N
black is placed on the right leg between the ankle and femur. R red is placed on the right arm,
preferably near the wrist. For noise reduction during an exercise, patient monitoring or
ambulatory electrocardiograph, the L yellow, F green, N black and R red leads can be placed on
the torso.
Patient information is then entered into the Marquette software for direct result to database
comparisons based on age and gender specific criteria.
Ten seconds of biosignals from all leads are simultaneously acquired at 500 samples per
second. This data is analyzed by the Marquette 12SL software and displayed in a precise manner
on the screen of the Mac5500 (GE Healthcare, 2008). Multiple formats are available to enhance

the precision of the diagnosis. The sampling rate displays a value every .05mm on a chart
moving at 25mm/s. This rate is kept consistent by the device, which averages ten successive
values.
The analog signals are then digitized into 4.88V units at 4kHz and displayed on the screen for
the physician to interpret.

Accuracy and Precision Assurance

There are three types of signals that the MAC 5500 protects its ECGs against. The signals are
common mode signals, 50/60-Hz buzz and baseline sway.

Common mode signals are signals that are not generated by the patient, but by the electrical
equipment surrounding the patient. The Mac 5500 reduces common mode signals utilizing an
amplifier circuit with a common mode rejection ratio of greater than 140 decibels.
50/60-Hz buzz caused by differential signals in the lead connections is reduced by having a very
short lead wire length. Any remaining 50/60-Hz buzz is removed using a line of frequency filter.
The line frequency is a manually entered value.
Baseline Sway is caused by patient respiration or slow potential change due to poor electrode
contact. To eliminate this, the clinical staff must properly prep the skin prior to placing good
quality electrodes. A baseline filter is included in the circuit. The filter subtracts a section of the
difference of signal and mid-channel potential. A greater portion of difference is subtracted when
the signal variance from the mid-channel for a longer period of time.

Error Reporting

The Mac 5500`s 12SL acquisition software compares present hook up statuses with a database of
typical error situations and then alerts the clinical staff of any abnormal artifact scenarios. There
are three indicator lights that will appear during a scenario where any of sic artifacts are present.
The red light indicates a lead-fail or extreme baseline shift. The yellow light indicates a muscle
artifact, power line interference, baseline wander or electrode noise. The green light indicated
acceptable signal quality. (GE Healthcare, 2008)
The common artifacts that the Mac 5500 acknowledges as 50/60-Hz noise interference (Figure
2); global lead muscle artifact (Figure 3); single lead disconnect (Figure 4) single lead artifact
(Figure 5); disconnect left limb lead (Figure 6) and baseline wander (Figure 7).

Figure 2- 50/60-Hz Noise Interference display

on a Mac 5500. This is generally caused by
noise emitted by light fixtures.

Figure 3- Global Lead Muscle Artifact display on a Mac 5500. This

is commonly caused by patient movement.

Figure 4- Single Lead Disconnect display on a Mac 5500.

Figure 5- Single Lead Artifact display on a MAC5500. This

anomaly is commonly caused by a wire fracture, poor patient
preparation or a disconnected electrode.

Figure 6- Disconnected Left Limb Lead display on a MAC5500.

Figure 7- Baseline Wander displayed on a Mac 5500.

Circuitry
The MAC 5500 is comprised of one individual circuit board which is called the 007 board
(Figure 8).

Moe is a peripheral microcontroller that functions as a system supervisor and a battery

charger gauge. It is powered by a 3.3 Volt liner power supply.
Atmel AT91RM9200 CPU incorporates the ARM920T Processor, which runs at 200 million
instructions per second at 180MHz. It also has a 16 Kbyte data cache, a 16Kbyte instruction
cache, an in-circuit emulator with a debug communication channel, and a 256-ball BGA midlevel implementation embedded trace macrocell. It has a linear 1.8 volt power supply.
The FPGA contains an XBus controller, and LCD controller with CDRAM Frame Buffer,
video waveform scroller, 8 level priority individually maskable system interrupt generator,
acquisition module interface, thermal printhead interface, EEPROM Interface to store data
when power supply is removed, BBus controller for communication within the CPU, four
PWM analog outputs to conform pulse width, a beep generator and a PC Card interface for
storage. It has a 1.8 volt liner power supply.
The Super I/O controller contains a dual mode RS-232 / IrDA for wireless data transfer, a
clock/calendar and a keyboard port for barcode readers.
The multimedia card interface can support up to two MMC and SD cards.

Larry is a peripheral microcontroller that functions as a printer motor controller and analog
input.
Shemp is a peripheral microcontroller functioning as a keyboard interface. It has 16K Bytes
of SRAM and 128K Bytes of ROM.
The power switch has a 3.3 volt power supply for the LCD, a 5 volt power supply for the
printer, a 12 volt power supply to illuminate the LCD backlight and a battery charger.
12 VDC comes through the voltage regulator, into the Main regulator which connects to
Moe, which sends any necessary charge to the backup battery. Moe connects to the Atmel
CPU and the FPGA. The Atmel also connects to the Super I/O controller, the multimedia
card interface and the Serial Peripheral Interface. The FPGA connects to Larry, Shemp, a
power switch, a speaker and an LCD display.

Safety Features
The Mac 5500 is a Class 1 device (Figure 8) which offers little risk to patients and does not cause
abnormal functioning of a cardiac pacemaker or other electrical simulator. The device is
protected against a surge caused by a defibrillator discharge. The most common errors are
interpretational ones, so it is required that a qualified physician review the results before a
diagnosis is given.

Figure 8- Safety features of the MAC 5500

To date, there have been no safety alerts or recalls on the MAC 5500 (FDA CITE).

Acquisition
Contact information: Chris Scott
Manager, Clinical Engineering
Kingston General Hospital
613-549-6666 ext 2260
scottc@kgh.kari.net

Clinical training is done using an online training process. The technical training is done using
training software. Both clinical and technical training can be done on site. The technical training
software has a onetime cost of $400.00. The machine and software cost total is around $8000,
which is a quote from a biomedical engineering technologist at Kingston General Hospital who
wished to remain anonymous.

References
GE Healthcare. (1998). Cam-14 acquisition module. GE Marquette Medical Systems, Inc.
GE Healthcare. (2008, July 28). Marquette 12sl ecg analysis program. Retrieved from
http://www.frankshospitalworkshop.com/equipment/documents/ecg/service_manuals/Marquette
MAC 5500 serv.pdf
GE Healthcare. (2011, July). Mac 5500 hd ecg system. Retrieved from
http://www.davismedical.com/content/pdf/MAC-5500-Datasheet.pdf
Health Canada. (2014, March 25). Drugs and health products. Retrieved from
http://webprod5.hc-sc.gc.ca/mdll-limh/information.do?
deviceId_idInstrument=571491&deviceName_nomInstrument=MAC 5500 HD RESTING ECG
SYSTEM - MAIN UNIT&licenceId=84026&lang=eng