Autonomic Imbalance Induced Breakdown of Long-range Dependence in Healthy Heart Rate

N. Aoyagi; Z. R. Struzik; K. Kiyono; Y. Yamamoto

doi:10.1055/s-0038-1625402

Methods of Information in Medicine, Table of Contents

Methods Inf Med 2007; 46(02): 174-178
DOI: 10.1055/s-0038-1625402

Original Article

Schattauer GmbH

Autonomic Imbalance Induced Breakdown of Long-range Dependence in Healthy Heart Rate

N. Aoyagi

¹Institute for Science of Labor, Japan

²Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Japan

,

Z. R. Struzik

²Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Japan

,

K. Kiyono

³Department of General Studies, College of Engineering, Nihon University, Japan

,

Y. Yamamoto

²Educational Physiology Laboratory, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo, Japan

› Author Affiliations

Abstract

Summary

Objectives : The investigation of the relation between the long-range correlation property of heart rate and autonomic balance.

Methods : An investigation of the fractal scaling properties of heart rate variability was carried out by using detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA). Eleven healthy subjects were examined for two consecutive days, which included usual daily activity, strenuous prolonged experimental exercise, and sleep. We also considered two patient groups with autonomic dysfunction characterized by selective sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance.

Results : Robust long-range dependence in heart rate is observed only in the state of usual daily activity, characterized by normal heart rate typical of balanced autonomic sympathetic and parasympathetic regulation. This confirms the previously postulated behavioral independence of heart rate regulation, but reveals that the occurrence of 1/f, long-range dependence is restricted to only the state of autonomic balance. Both the sympathetic dominant high heart rate state, realized during strenuous experimental exercise, and the parasympathetic dominant low heart rate state, prevalent in (deep) sleep, are characterized by uncorrelated, near white-noise-like scaling, lacking long-range dependence.

Conclusion : Remarkably, the breakdown of the long-range correlations observed in healthy heart rate in the states of sympathetic and parasympathetic dominance is in stark contrast to the increased correlations which have previously been observed in neurogenic parasympathetic and sympathetic dominance in patients suffering from primary autonomic failure and congestive heart failure, respectively. Our findings further reveal the diagnostic capabilities of heart rate dynamics, by differentiating physiological healthy states from pathology.

Keywords

Autonomic balance - long-range correlation - detrended fluctuation analysis

Full Text

References

References
1. Amaral LN, Ivanov PC, Aoyagi N, Hidaka I, Tomono S, Goldberger AL, Stanley HE, Yamamoto Y. Behavioral-independent features of complex heartbeat dynamics. Phys Rev Lett 2001; 86: 6026-6029.
2. Aoyagi N, Ohashi K, Yamamoto Y. Frequency characteristics of long-term heart rate variability during constant routine protocol. Am J Physiol 2003; 285: R171-R176.
3. Bigger J, Fleiss JL, Steitman RC, Rolnitzky LM, Kleiger RE, Rottman JN. Frequency domain measures of heart period variability and mortality after myocardial infarction. Circulation 1992; 85: 164-171.
4. Bunde A, Havlin S, Kantelhardt JW, Penzel T, Peter JH, Voigt K. Correlated and uncorrelated regions in heart-rate fluctuations during sleep. Phys Rev Lett 2000; 85: 3736-3739.
5. Goldberger AL, Amaral LN, Glass L, Havlin S, Hausdorff JM, Ivanov Pch, Mark RG, Mietus JE, Moody GB, Peng CK, Stanley HE. PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet: components of a new research resource for complex physiologic signals. Circulation 2000; 101: e215-e220.
6. Ivanov PC, Amaral LAN, Goldberger AL, Havlin S, Rosenblum MG, Struzik ZR, Stanley HE. Multifractality in human heart rate dynamics. Nature 1999; 399: 461-465.
7. Ivanov PC, Bunde A, Amaral LAN, Havlin S, Fritsch-Yelle J, Baevsky RM, Stanley HE, Goldberger AL. Sleep-wake differences in scaling behavior of the human heartbeat: Analysis of terrestrial and long-term space flight data. Europhys Lett 1999; 48: 594-600.
8. Karasik R, Sapir N, Ashkenazy Y, Ivanov PC, Dvir I, Lavie P, Havlin S. Correlation differences in heartbeat fluctuations during rest and exercise. Phys Rev E 2002; 66: 062902.
9. Kobayashi M, Musha T. 1/f Fluctuation of heartbeat period. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 1982; 29: 456-457.
10. Martinis M, Knežević A, Krstačić G, Vargović E. Changes in the Hurst exponent of heartbeat intervals during physical activity. Phys Rev E 2004; 70: 012903.
11. Peng CK, Havlin S, Stanley HE, Goldberger AL. Quantification of scaling exponents and crossover phenomena in nonstationary heartbeat time series. Chaos 1995; 5: 82-87.
12. Peng CK, Mietus J, Hausdorff JM, Havlin S, Stanley HE, Goldberger AL. Long-range anticorrelations and non-Gaussian behavior of the heartbeat. Phys Rev Lett 1993; 70: 1343-1346.
13. Saul JP, Albrecht P, Berger RD, Cohen RJ. Analysis of long term heart rate variability: methods. 1 / scaling and implications. Comp. Cardiol 1987; 14: 419-422.
14. Struzik ZR, Hayano J, Sakata S, Kwak S, Yamamoto Y. 1/f Scaling in heart rate requires antagonistic autonomic control. Phys Rev E 2004; 70: 050901 (R).
15. Struzik ZR, Hayano J, Soma R, Kwak S, Yamamoto Y. 1/f Aging of Complex Heartrate Dynamics. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering 2006; 53: 89-94.
16. Tulppo MP, Hughson RL, MaKikallio TH, Airaksinen KEJ, Seppanen T, Huikuri H. Effects of exercise and passive head-up tilt on fractal and complexity properties of heart rate dynamics. Am J Physiol 2001; 280: H1081-H1087.
17. Yamamoto Y, Hughson RL. On the fractal nature of heart rate variability in humans: effects of data length and ß-adrenergic blockade. Am J Physiol 1994; 266: R40-R49.