Author(s)

O.J. Escalona

Abstract

Late potential (LP) analysis in the signal-averaged ECG is a useful clinical tool in the detection of patients at risk after myocardial infarction (MI). The presence of abnormal LP activity has been correlated with inducible ventricular tachycardia (VT) at programmed electrical stimulation in post-Mi patients. A novel and reliable approach which quantifies the chaotic-like nature of LP activity in the time domain is presented here. By establishing the basin of attraction of the LP attractor in the microvoltage, 3 -dimensional space, and then computing the fractal dimension (5) of the attractor's trajectory, the strangeness of the dynamical behaviour of late potentials was quantified. Thus, the parameter 6 provides an index of the chaotic behaviour

Keywords