Diagnosis and risk stratification of patients with acute coronary syndromes can be improved by adding information from the depolarization phase (QRS complex) to the conventionally used ST-T segment changes. In this study, ischemia-induced changes in the main three slopes of the QRS complex, upward (X_US) and downward (X_DS) slopes of the R wave as well as the upward (I_TS) slope of the terminal S wave, were evaluated as to represent a robust measure of pathological changes within the depolarization phase. From ECG recordings both in a resting state (control recordings) and during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI)-induced transmural ischemia, we developed a method for quantification of I_US, I_DS, and I_TS that incorporates dynamic ECG normalization so as to improve the sensitivity in the detection of ischemia-induced changes. The same method was also applied on leads obtained by projection of QRS loops onto their dominant directions. We show that I_US, I_DS, and I_TS present high stability in the resting state, thus providing a stable reference for ischemia characterization. Maximum relative factors of change (R_I) during PCI were found in leads derived from the QRS loop, reaching 10.5 and 13.7 times their normal variations in the control for I_US and I_DS, respectively. For standard leads, the relative factors of change were 6.01 and 9.31. The I_TS index presented a similar behavior to that of I_DS. The timing for the occurrence of significant changes in I_US and I_DS varied with lead, ranging from 30 s to 2 min after initiation of coronary occlusion. In the present ischemia model, relative I_DS changes were smaller than ST changes in most leads, however with only modest correlation between the two indices, suggesting they present different information about the ischemic process. We conclude that QRS slopes offer a robust tool for evaluating depolarization changes during myocardial ischemia.

The etiology of Brugada syndrome (BS) is complex and multifactorial, making risk stratification in this population a major challenge. Since changes in the autonomic modulation of these patients are commonly related to arrhythmic events, we analyze in this work whether the response to head-up tilt (HUT) testing on this population may provide useful, complementary information for risk stratification. In order to perform this analysis, a coupled physiological model integrating the cardiac electrical activity, the cardiovascular system and the baroreceptors reflex control of the autonomic function, in response to HUT is proposed. A sensitivity analysis was performed, based on a screening method, evidencing the influence of cardiovascular parameters on blood pressure and of baroreflex regulation on heart rate. The most sensitive parameters have been identified on a set of 20 subjects (8 controls and 12 BS patients), so as to assess subject-specific model parameters. According to the results, controls showed an increased sympathetic modulation after tilting, as well as a reduced left ventricular contractility was observed in symptomatic, with respect to asymptomatic BS patients. These results provide new insights regarding the autonomic mechanisms regulating the cardiovascular system in BS which might be used as a complementary source of information, along with classical electrophysiological parameters, for BS risk stratification.

In this paper, an ischemia detector is presented based on the analysis of QRS-derived angles. The detector has been developed by modeling ischemic effects on the QRS angles as a gradual change with a certain transition time and assuming a Laplacian additive modeling error contaminating the angle series. Both standard and non-standard leads were used for analysis. Non-standard leads were obtained by applying the PCA technique over specific lead subsets to represent different potential locations of the ischemic zone. The performance of the proposed detector was tested over a population of 79 patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention in one of the major coronary arteries (LAD (n = 25), RCA (n = 16) and LCX (n = 38)). The best detection performance, obtained for standard ECG leads, was achieved in the LAD group with values of sensitivity and specificity of , , followed by the RCA group with , Sp = 94.4 and the LCX group with , , notably outperforming detection based on the ST series in all cases, with the same detector structure. The timing of the detected ischemic events ranged from 30 s up to 150 s (mean = 66.8 s) following the start of occlusion. We conclude that changes in the QRS angles can be used to detect acute myocardial ischemia.