Acute myocardial ischemia monitoring before and during angioplasty by a novel vectorcardiographic parameter set

Abstract Background This work evaluates the vectorcardiographic dynamic changes in ischemic patients before and during Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA). Methods Four QRS-loop parameters were computed in 51 ischemic and 52 healthy subjects with the objective of assessing the vectorcardiographic differences between both groups: maximum vector magnitude ( QRSmVM ), planar area ( QRSPA ), maximum distance between centroid and loop ( QRSmDCL ) and perimeter ( QRSP ).The conventional ST-change vector magnitude ( STCVM ), QRS-vector difference ( QRSVD ) and spatial ventricular gradient ( SVG ) were also calculated. Results Statistical minute-by-minute PTCA comparison against a healthy population showed that ischemic patients monitoring is greatly enhanced when all the QRS-loop parameters, in combination with the standard STCVM , QRSVD and SVG indexes, are used in the classification. Sensitivity and Specificity, in turn, reached rather high values, 95.4% and 95.2%, respectively. Conclusions These new vectorcardiographic set of complementary QRS-loop parameters, when combined with the classics STCVM , QRSVD and SVG indexes, increase sensitivity and specificity for acute ischemia monitoring.