Different combination techniques in the computation of the QT dispersion index

The implications of three different combination algorithms for the computation of the QT dispersion index are studied and examined. The two most used indices of QT dispersion have been considered: the difference between max and min QT duration and the standard deviation of the QT duration in the 12 leads. In order to investigate on clinical aspects of the QT dispersion, the three proposed algorithm have been evaluated in the ECG-ILSA database considering four different groups: healthy patients, patients with cardiac arrhythmia, with myocardial infarction, and with both pathologies. The results have shown that on one hand the three algorithms produce (statistically significant) different results, and on the other hand the same relation among the four considered groups is preserved.