  Although HRV (Heart Rate Variability) analyses have been carried out for
several decades, several limiting factors still make these analyses useless
from a clinical point of view. The present paper aims at overcoming some of
these limits by introducing the "Life Potential" (BMP), a new mathematical
algorithm which seems to exhibit surprising cognitive and predictive
capabilities. BMP is defined as a linear combination of five HRV Non-Linear
Variables, in turn derived from the thermodynamic formalism of chaotic dynamic
systems. The paper presents experimental measurements of BMP (Average Values
and Standard Deviations) derived from 1048 Holter tests, matched in age and
gender, including a control group of 356 healthy subjects. The main results
are: (a) BMP always decreases when the age increases, and its dependence on age
and gender is well established; (b) the shape of the age dependence within
"healthy people" is different from that found in the general group: this
behavior provides evidence of possible illness, and seems to justify the
attribute of "life potential". A simplified "standard" procedure is then
supplied to compute BMP values for a given subject, whereas BMP dependence on
clinical status is now under investigation to make BMP a useful clinical tool.
