A system for heart performance characterization and abnormality detection, includes an acquisition device for acquiring an electrophysiological signal representing a heart beat cycle of a patient heart. A detector detects multiple parameters of the electrophysiological signal comprising at least one of, (a) amplitude, (b) time duration, (c) frequency and (d) time-frequency, representative parameters. A signal analyzer calculates at least one ratio of the detected parameters from ratios including, (i) ratio of T wave amplitude to P wave amplitude, (ii) ratio of time duration of ST wave to time duration of PR wave, (iii) ratio of a frequency of a PR wave to a frequency of a RT wave and (iv) ratio of a time-frequency measure of a PR wave to a time-frequency measure of a RT wave. A comparator determines whether a calculated ratio exceeds a predetermined upper limit threshold or a predetermined lower limit threshold. An output processor generates data representing an alert message in response to the calculated ratio exceeding a predetermined threshold.