title: The prediction of death up to 100 days after admission to hospital for acute medical illness - the comparison of two ECG interpretation methods with ECG-dispersion mapping.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  the prognostic performances of different ECG interpretation methods have not been compared.
  
  
  METHODS
  the 100 day mortality of 513 patients predicted by Marquette proprietary ECG software, Tan et al's scoring system and the myocardial micro-alternation index (MMI) were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  33 patients (6.4%) died within 100 days of hospital admission. The c statistics for Marquette and Tan ECG interpretation and MMI were not statistically different (i.e. 0.64, 0.68 and 0.73, respectively). Only MMI was independent from age as a predictor of mortality. The c statistic for MMI plus age of 0.81 was significantly higher than that of Marquette ECG interpretation (p 0.015).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  predictions of 100 day mortality by of all three ECG interpretation methods are equivalent.
authors.affiliation: Consultant Physician, Nenagh Hospital.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kellett
authors.affiliation: Clinical Nurse Manager Medical Assessment Unit, Nenagh Hospital.
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Clifford