Work

Intrinsic dynamics of heart regulatory systems on short timescales: from experiment to modelling

Year: 2009

Type: article

Abstract: We discuss open problems related to the stochastic modeling of cardiac function. The work is based on an experimental investigation of the dynamics of heart rate variability (HRV) in the absence of respiratory perturbations. We consider first the cardiac control system on short time scales via an analysis of HRV within the framework of a random walk approach. Our experiments show that HRV on timescales of less than a minute takes the form of free diffusion, close to Brownian motion, which can be described as a non-stationary process with stationary increments. Secondly, we consider the inverse problem of modeling the state of the control system so as to reproduce the experimentally observed HRV statistics of. We discuss some simple toy models and identify open problems for the modelling of heart dynamics.

Source: Journal of Statistical Mechanics Theory and Experiment

DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/2009/01/p01016

Authors: I A Khovanov, N A Khovanova, P V E McClintock, A Stefanovska

Institution: Lancaster University

Language: English

Topic: Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control

Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

Field: Medicine

Domain: Health Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Wellcome Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Awards: G1865577880, G4772901199, G4995381862, Exploiting the information content of noise in complex systems: Bayesian inference of nonlinear stochastic models and applications to human blood flow, Nonlinear dynamics of congestive heart failure and hypertension.