Dysrhythmia hazard after hospitalization for myocardial infarction: Two ECG prognostic methods compared

We retrieved reports of heart rate variability and signal-averaged electroc ardiograms (SAECG) used to predict risk of a dysrhythmic event. From each r eport the number of cases with and without events was extracted to establis h accurate values for true positive rate (tpr = sensitivity) and false posi tive rate (fpr = 1 minus specificity). For all the heart rate variability r eports, these values were collected and tpr values were plotted versus fpr. The (fpr,tpr) data were summarized by a meta ROC graph using the method of Moses and Shapiro. A composite weighted mean value and 95% confidence inte rval were also derived. A summary meta-ROC curve for thc SAECG reports was similarly obtained., Meta-ROC analysis of multiple reports better summarize s the performances of different prognostic methods and allows the effect of combining tests for a larger population to be simulated.