Time dependent history improves QT interval estimation in atrial fibrillation
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Updated: May 18, 2026

Estimating Bilateral Atrial Function by Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Feature Tracking in Patients with Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: July 20, 2022
David Pickham1, David Mortara, Barbara J Drew
1Department of Physiological Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. david.pickham@ucsf.edu
Purpose:
It is not recommended to perform QTc estimation in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). We evaluated multiple QT interval correction formulas, including a novel time-dependent history approach, in an effort to identify the best method for correcting the QT interval in patients with AF. The ideal correction results in independence between the QTc estimate and HR.
Methods:
Per-beat characteristics were derived using SuperECG (Mortara Instrument). Offline beat-to-beat QTc interval estimates were constructed using standard formulae and averaged (2-10) groups constructed.
Results:
Seventy-one patients were included, age 67 ± 10 years, 69% men. Mean-mean QTc intervals varied by correction (range 394-459 ms). Averaging resulted in the same mean-mean QTc estimate, but significantly reduced variability by up to 55%. Time-dependent RR interval history reduced variability the most (Δ 80%), increased QT/RR dynamics (m=.03 vs .17), and was independent with HR (m = 0.0008).
Conclusions:
Our data suggests that QTc interval estimation in patients with AF can be performed reliably using time-dependent history (RRc) outperforming other correction methods.
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