The rate of heart beat is controlled by autonomic nervous system:
accelerated by the sympathetic system and slowed by the parasympathetic
system. Scaling properties in heart rate are usually related to the
intrinsic dynamics of this physiological regulatory system. The two
packages calculating local exponent spectra: Wavelet Transform Modulus
Maxima and Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (accessible from
Physionet home page
http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/101/23/e215) are tested,
and then used to investigate the spectrum of singularity exponents in
series of heart rates obtained from patients suffering from reduced
left ventricle systolic function. It occurs that this state of a heart
could be connected to some perturbation in the regulatory system,
because the heart rate appears to be less controlled than in a healthy
human heart. The multifractality in the heart rate signal is weakened:
the spectrum is narrower and moved to higher values what indicate the
higher activity of the sympatethic nervous system.
PACS numbers: 87.19.Hh, 05.40.--a, 87.80.Vt, 89.75.Da
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