Patent ID: 8818494

Claim:
A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection for a patient, comprising: an interface configured to receive signal data representing an electrical signal indicating electrical activity of a patient heart over a plurality of heart beat cycles; a filter configured to extract: first signal component data in a first selected bandwidth and first heart cycle portion of the received signal data and second signal component data in a different second selected bandwidth and second heart cycle portion of the received signal data; a signal processor configured to: determine a first value based on the first signal component data, the first value comprising a first energy value derived from the first signal component data or a first entropy value derived from the first signal component data, and determine a second value based on the second signal component data, the second value comprising second energy value derived from the second signal component data or a second entropy value derived from the first signal component data; calculate a ratio of the first value to the second value; a comparator configured to compare the calculated ratio or a value derived from the calculated ratio with a threshold value to provide a comparison indicator; and a patient monitor configured to generate, in response to said comparison indicator indicating a calculated signal characteristic value exceeds the threshold value, an alert message associated with the threshold.