[Investigating the fractal characteristic of heart rate variability during anesthesia]

By use of fractal analysis indexes-correlation dimension, fractal dimension and scaling exponent, the heart rate variability signals obtained from 38 subjects' ECG during anesthesia are analyzed. The results show that there is an obvious change of fractal characteristic of heart rate variability during anesthesia. The correlation dimension (P < 0.000001) during anesthesia is evidently less than that during consciousness, while the short-range scaling exponent a (P < 0.0001) during consciousness is evidently less than that during anesthesia. These illustrate that the difference in fractal characteristic between anesthesia and well-balanced state can be detected by the fractal analysis of heart rate variability. In the end, the paper poses that the analysis of heart rate variability is fit for monitoring the depth of anesthesia by detrended fluctuation analysis.