A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection includes an interface for receiving digitized electrical signals representing blood pressure waveforms over one or more heart beat cycles. The digitized electrical signals comprise, a first digital data sequence representing normal blood pressure of a patient, a second digital data sequence representing random blood pressure of a normal patient and a third digital data sequence representing a potentially abnormal blood pressure of a patient. A complexity processor calculates first, second and third complexity indices for the corresponding first, second and third digital data sequences respectively. A correlation processor uses the calculated first, second and third complexity indices to calculate one or more measures indicating deviation of the potentially abnormal blood pressure of the patient from a normal value.
