A new automatic method to estimate the QT interval from the electrographic signal

The QT interval is one of the most important and difficult parameters computed from the electrocardiographic signal. Manual procedures are dependent on the operator´s experience and are time consuming. On the other hand, automatic methods are fast and present high reproducibility. However, they need a critical assessment of their performance, comparing their results with the measures of a skilled physician. This work presents a new method as an alternative to measure QT interval in ECG. The results have shown that the new automatic method has the same precision of those obtained by manual procedures performed by skilled physicians and by some studies described in the literature. In conclusion, the method is useful for clinical applications. Other subproduct obtained with this research was the verification of a complete lack of standardization of points and rules to estimate time intervals and waves in the electrocardiographic signal