Long-range anticorrelations and non-Gaussian behavior of the heartbeat.
We find that the successive increments in the cardiac beat-to-beat intervals of healthy subjects display scale-invariant, long-range anticorrelations (up to 10(4) heart beats).  Furthermore, we find that the histogram for the heartbeat intervals increments is well described by a Lévy stable distribution.  For a group of subjects with severe heart disease, we find that the distribution is unchanged, but the long-range correlations vanish.  Therefore, the different scaling behavior in health and disease must relate to the underlying dynamics of the heartbeat.
Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Massachusetts 02215.
Peng C-K
J
J
Mietus
J M
JM
Hausdorff
S
S
Havlin
H E
HE
Stanley
A L
AL
Goldberger
D000328:Adult; D002303:Cardiac Output, Low / Q000503:physiopathology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016011:Normal Distribution; D013997:Time Factors; D018487:Ventricular Dysfunction, Left / Q000503:physiopathology