title: Empirical mode decomposition to assess cardiovascular autonomic control in rats.
abstract: Heart beat rate and blood pressure, together with baroreflex sensitivity, have become important tools in assessing cardiac autonomic system control and in studying sympathovagal balance. These analyses are usually performed thanks to spectral indices computed from standard spectral analysis techniques. However, standard spectral analysis and its corresponding rigid band-pass filter formulation suffer from two major drawbacks. It can be significantly distorted by non-stationarity issues and it proves unable to adjust to natural intra- and inter-individual variability. Empirical mode decomposition (EMD), a tool recently introduced in the literature, provides us with a signal-adaptive decomposition that proves useful for the analysis of non-stationary data and shows a strong capability to precisely adjust to the spectral content of the analyzed data. It is based on the concept that any complicated set of data can be decomposed into a finite number of components, called intrinsic mode functions, associated with different spectral contributions. The aims of this study were twofold. First, we studied the changes in the sympathovagal balance induced by various pharmacological blockades (phentolamine, atropine and atenolol) of the autonomic nervous system in normotensive rats. Secondly, we assessed the use of EMD for the analysis of the cardiac sympathovagal balance after pharmacological injections. For this, we developed a new (EMD-based) low frequency vs. high frequency spectral decomposition of heart beat variability and systolic blood pressure, we define the corresponding EMD spectral indices and study their relevance to detect and analyze changes accurately in the sympathovagal balance without having recourse to any a priori fixed high-pass/low-pass filters.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique, CNRS UMR 5672, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 46, allée d'Italie, 69364 Lyon Cedex 07, France. edmundo.pereira-de-souza-neto@chu-lyon.fr
authors.forename: Edmundo Pereira
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: de Souza Neto
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Abry
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Loiseau
authors.forename: Jean Christophe
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Cejka
authors.forename: Marc Antoine
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Custaud
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frutoso
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gharib
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Flandrin
mesh_terms: D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001262:Atenolol / Q000494:pharmacology; D001285:Atropine / Q000494:pharmacology; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena / Q000187:drug effects; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010276:Parasympatholytics / Q000494:pharmacology; D010646:Phentolamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D013565:Sympatholytics / Q000494:pharmacology; D013686:Telemetry / Q000379:methods; D014630:Vagus Nerve / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D000317:Adrenergic alpha-Antagonists; D010276:Parasympatholytics; D013565:Sympatholytics; D001262:Atenolol; D001285:Atropine; D010646:Phentolamine