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Published on: March 14, 2013
Transfer Entropy Modeling of Newborn Cardiorespiratory Regulation
Maristella Lucchini1,2, Nicolò Pini1,2,3, Nina Burtchen2
1Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, United States.
Insights
This study reveals increasing cardiorespiratory information transfer with gestational age in neonates. It introduces a new method to analyze interactions between heart rate (RR series) and respiration (RESP), offering insights into autonomic nervous system function.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal physiology
- Cardiorespiratory interactions
- Information theory in medicine
Background:
- Cardiorespiratory systems exhibit complex interactions crucial for infant health.
- Understanding developing cardiorespiratory control mechanisms is vital for identifying potential imbalances.
- Autonomic nervous system (ANS) modulation influences cardiorespiratory dynamics at different time scales.
Purpose of the Study:
- To describe developing cardiorespiratory information transfer in neonates as a function of gestational age.
- To quantify instantaneous and delayed interactions between cardiac (RR series) and respiratory (RESP) systems.
- To explore the influence of ANS branches on cardiorespiratory information exchange.
Main Methods:
- Proposed an extension of Transfer Entropy (TE) using lagged time series of RR and RESP intervals.
- Validated the lagged TE method on simulated data.
- Applied lagged TE to cardiorespiratory data from 268 healthy neonates (35-40 weeks gestation).
Main Results:
- Information transfer between cardiac and respiratory systems progressively increased with gestational age.
- Significant differences observed in instantaneous and delayed interactions between RR→RESP and RESP→RR.
- Directional information transfer patterns were differentially modulated by ANS branches.
Conclusions:
- Lagged TE provides a novel quantitative tool for analyzing cardiorespiratory dynamics in neonates.
- The findings suggest distinct roles for sympathetic and parasympathetic ANS branches in modulating cardiorespiratory information flow.
- This approach aids in understanding and potentially identifying cardiorespiratory imbalance in early infancy.
Abstract:
This study investigates the complex interplay between the cardiac and respiratory systems in 268 healthy neonates born between 35 and 40 weeks of gestation. The aim is to provide a comprehensive description of the developing cardiorespiratory information transfer mechanisms as a function of gestational age (GA). This report proposes an extension of the traditional Transfer Entropy measure (TE), which employs multiple lagged versions of the time series of the intervals between two successive R waves of the QRS signal on the electrocardiogram (RR series) and respiration time series (RESP). The method aims to quantify the instantaneous and delayed effects between the two processes within a fine-grained time scale. Firstly, lagged TE was validated on a simulated dataset. Subsequently, lagged TE was employed on newborn cardiorespiratory data. Results indicate a progressive increase in information transfer as a function of gestational age, as well as significant differences in terms of instantaneous and delayed interactions between the cardiac and the respiratory system when comparing the two TE directionalities (RR→RESP vs. RESP→RR). The proposed investigation addresses the role of the different autonomic nervous system (ANS) branches involved in the cardiorespiratory system, since the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches operate at different time scales. Our results allow to infer that the two TE directionalities are uniquely and differently modulated by both branches of the ANS. TE adds an original quantitative tool to understanding cardiorespiratory imbalance in early infancy.
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