Accurate QT correction method from transfer entropy

Esa Räsänen; Teemu Pukkila; Matias Kanniainen; Minna Miettinen; Rostislav Duda; Jiyeong Kim; Janne Solanpää; Katriina Aalto-Setälä; Ilya Potapov

doi:10.1016/j.cvdhj.2022.10.006

Accurate QT correction method from transfer entropy

Cardiovasc Digit Health J. 2022 Nov 26;4(1):1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cvdhj.2022.10.006. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Esa Räsänen¹, Teemu Pukkila¹, Matias Kanniainen¹, Minna Miettinen¹, Rostislav Duda¹, Jiyeong Kim¹, Janne Solanpää¹, Katriina Aalto-Setälä^{2

3}, Ilya Potapov¹

Affiliations

¹ Computational Physics Laboratory, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
² Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, BioMediTech, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland.
³ Heart Hospital, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland.

Abstract

Background: The QT interval in the electrocardiogram (ECG) is a fundamental risk measure for arrhythmic adverse cardiac events. However, the QT interval depends on the heart rate and must be corrected accordingly. The present QT correction (QTc) methods are either simple models leading to under- or overcorrection, or impractical in requiring long-term empirical data. In general, there is no consensus on the best QTc method.

Objective: We introduce a model-free QTc method-AccuQT-that computes QTc by minimizing the information transfer from R-R to QT intervals. The objective is to establish and validate a QTc method that provides superior stability and reliability without models or empirical data.

Methods: We tested AccuQT against the most commonly used QT correction methods by using long-term ECG recordings of more than 200 healthy subjects from PhysioNet and THEW databases.

Results: AccuQT overperforms the previously reported correction methods: the proportion of false-positives is reduced from 16% (Bazett) to 3% (AccuQT) for the PhysioNet data. In particular, the QTc variance is significantly reduced and thus the RR-QT stability is increased.

Conclusion: AccuQT has significant potential to become the QTc method of choice in clinical studies and drug development. The method can be implemented in any device recording R-R and QT intervals.

Keywords: ECG; Electrocardiography; Numerical techniques; QT interval; QTc interval.