Method and apparatus for determining information indicative of cardiac malfunctions

A method comprising:

• determining, based on a first signal indicative of cardiovascular motion, a correlation between amplitudes of heartbeats and quantities indicative of heartbeat rates prior to the heartbeats to detect whether a time-trend of the first signal manifests an indicative phenomenon where an amplitude of a first heartbeat is greater than an amplitude of a second heartbeat and a heartbeat rate is greater prior to the first heartbeat than prior to the second heartbeat;
• producing an indicator of cardiac malfunction in response to detection of the indicative phenomenon;
• and
• outputting the indicator to a user to treat or diagnose a patient.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium on which is stored a computer program which comprises computer executable instructions for controlling a programmable processor to:

• determine, based on a first signal indicative of cardiovascular motion, a correlation between amplitudes of heartbeats and quantities indicative of heartbeat rates prior to the heartbeats to detect whether a time-trend of the first signal manifests an indicative phenomenon where an amplitude of a first heartbeat is greater than an amplitude of a second heartbeat and a heartbeat rate is greater prior to the first heartbeat than prior to the second heartbeat;
• produce an indicator of cardiac malfunction in response to detection of the indicative phenomenon;
• and
• output the indicator to a user to treat or diagnose a patient.