Magnetocardiographic QT Interval Dispersion in Postmyocardial Infarction Patients with Sustained Ventricular Tachycardia: Validation of Automated QT Measurements

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Abstract
T dispersion is a measure of heterogeneity in ventricular repolarization. Increased ECG QT dispersion is associated with life‐threatening ventricular arrhythmias. We studied if magnetocardiographic (MCG) measures of QT dispersion can separate postmyocardial infarction patients with and without susceptibility to sustained VT. Manual dispersion measurements were compared to a newly adapted automatic QT interval analysis method. Ten patients with a history of sustained VT (VT group) and eight patients without ventricular arrhythmias (Controls) were studied after a remote myocardial infarction. Single‐channel MCGs were recorded from 42 locations over the frontal chest area and the signals were averaged. QT dispersion was defined as maximum — minimum or standard deviation of measured QT intervals. VT group showed significantly more QT and JT dispersion than Controls. QTapex dispersions were 127 ± 26 versus 83 ± 21 ms (P = 0.004) and QTend dispersions 130 ± 37 versus 82 ± 37 ms (P = 0.013), respectively. Automatic method gave comparable values. Their relative differences were 9% for QTapex and 27% for QTend dispersion on average. In conclusion, increased MCG QT interval dispersion seems to be associated with a susceptibility to VT in postmyocardial infarction patients. MCG mapping with automated QT interval analysis may provide a user independent method to detect nonhomogeneity in ventricular repolarization.

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