Cerebrovascular and cardiovascular variability interactions investigated through conditional joint transfer entropy in subjects prone to postural syncope

Dynamic cerebral autoregulation is preserved during orthostasis and intrathoracic pressure regulation in healthy subjects: A pilot study

Resistance breathing may restore cardiac output (CO) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) during hypovolemia. We assessed CBF and cerebral autoregulation (CA) during tilt, resistance breathing, and paced breathing in 10 healthy subjects. Blood velocities in the internal carotid artery (ICA), middle cerebral arteries (MCA, four subjects), and aorta were measured by Doppler ultrasound in 30° and 60° semi-recumbent positions. ICA blood flow and CO were calculated. Arterial blood pressure (ABP, Finometer), and end-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) were recorded. ICA blood flow response was assessed by mixed-models regression analysis. The synchronization index (SI) for the variable pairs ABP-ICA blood velocity, ABP-MCA velocities in 0.005-0.08 Hz frequency interval was calculated as a measure of CA. Passive tilting from 30° to 60° resulted in 12% decrease in CO (p = 0.001); ICA blood flow tended to fall (p = 0.04); Resistance breathing restored CO and ICA blood flow despite a 10% ETCO2 drop. ETCO2 and CO contributed to ICA blood flow variance (adjusted R2: 0.9, p < 0.0001). The median SI was low (<0.2) indicating intact CA, confirmed by surrogate date testing. The peak SI was transiently elevated during resistance breathing in the 60° position. Resistance breathing may transiently reduce CA efficiency. Paced breathing did not restore CO or ICA blood flow.

A Method to Assess Granger Causality, Isolation and Autonomy in the Time and Frequency Domains: Theory and Application to Cerebrovascular Variability

OBJECTIVE

Concepts of Granger causality (GC) and Granger autonomy (GA) are central to assess the dynamics of coupled physiologic processes. While causality measures have been already proposed and applied in time and frequency domains, measures quantifying self-dependencies are still limited to the time-domain formulation and lack of clear spectral representation.

METHODS

We embed into the linear parametric framework for computing GC from a driver X to a target process Y a measure of Granger Isolation (GI) quantifying the part of the dynamics of Y not originating from X, and a new spectral measure of GA assessing frequency-specific patterns of self-dependencies in Y. The measures are illustrated in theoretical simulations and applied to time series of arterial pressure and cerebral blood flow obtained in syncope subjects and healthy controls.

RESULTS

Simulations show that GI is complementary to GC but not trivially related to it, while GA reflects the regularity of the internal dynamics of the target process. In the application to cerebrovascular interactions, spectral GA quantified the physiological response to postural stress of slow cerebral blood flow oscillations, while spectral GC and GI detected an altered response to orthostasis in syncope subjects, likely related to impaired cerebral autoregulation.

CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE

The new spectral measures of GI and GA are useful complements to GC for the analysis of interacting oscillatory processes, and detect pathophysiological responses to postural stress which cannot be traced in the time domain. The thorough assessment of causality, isolation and autonomy opens new perspectives for the analysis of coupled processes in both physiological and clinical investigations.

Quantification of dynamic cerebral autoregulation: welcome to the jungle!

PURPOSE

Patients with dysautonomia often experience symptoms such as dizziness, syncope, blurred vision and brain fog. Dynamic cerebral autoregulation, or the ability of the cerebrovasculature to react to transient changes in arterial blood pressure, could be associated with these symptoms.

METHODS

In this narrative review, we go beyond the classical view of cerebral autoregulation to discuss dynamic cerebral autoregulation, focusing on recent advances pitfalls and future directions.

RESULTS

Following some historical background, this narrative review provides a brief overview of the concept of cerebral autoregulation, with a focus on the quantification of dynamic cerebral autoregulation. We then discuss the main protocols and analytical approaches to assess dynamic cerebral autoregulation, including recent advances and important issues which need to be tackled.

CONCLUSION

The researcher or clinician new to this field needs an adequate comprehension of the toolbox they have to adequately assess, and interpret, the complex relationship between arterial blood pressure and cerebral blood flow in healthy individuals and clinical populations, including patients with autonomic disorders.

Concomitant evaluation of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls via Geweke spectral causality to assess the propensity to postural syncope

The evaluation of propensity to postural syncope necessitates the concomitant characterization of the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls and a method capable of disentangling closed loop relationships and decomposing causal links in the frequency domain. We applied Geweke spectral causality (GSC) to assess cardiovascular control from heart period and systolic arterial pressure variability and cerebrovascular regulation from mean arterial pressure and mean cerebral blood velocity variability in 13 control subjects and 13 individuals prone to develop orthostatic syncope. Analysis was made at rest in supine position and during head-up tilt at 60°, well before observing presyncope signs. Two different linear model structures were compared, namely bivariate autoregressive and bivariate dynamic adjustment classes. We found that (i) GSC markers did not depend on the model structure; (ii) the concomitant assessment of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls was useful for a deeper comprehension of postural disturbances; (iii) orthostatic syncope appeared to be favored by the loss of a coordinated behavior between the baroreflex feedback and mechanical feedforward pathway in the frequency band typical of the baroreflex functioning during the postural challenge, and by a weak cerebral autoregulation as revealed by the increased strength of the pressure-to-flow link in the respiratory band. GSC applied to spontaneous cardiovascular and cerebrovascular oscillations is a promising tool for describing and monitoring disturbances associated with posture modification.

The degree of engagement of cardiac and sympathetic arms of the baroreflex does not depend on the absolute value and sign of arterial pressure variations

Objective.The percentages of cardiac and sympathetic baroreflex patterns detected via baroreflex sequence (SEQ) technique from spontaneous variability of heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) and of muscle nerve sympathetic activity (MSNA) burst rate and diastolic arterial pressure (DAP) are utilized to assess the level of the baroreflex engagement. The cardiac baroreflex patterns can be distinguished in those featuring both HP and SAP increases (cSEQ++) and decreases (cSEQ--), while the sympathetic baroreflex patterns in those featuring a MSNA burst rate decrease and a DAP increase (sSEQ+-) and vice versa (sSEQ-+). The present study aims to assess the modifications of the involvement of the cardiac and sympathetic arms of the baroreflex with age and postural stimulus intensity.Approach.We monitored the percentages of cSEQ++ (%cSEQ++) and cSEQ-- (%cSEQ--) in 100 healthy subjects (age: 21-70 years, 54 males, 46 females), divided into five sex-balanced groups consisting of 20 subjects in each decade at rest in supine position and during active standing (STAND). We evaluated %cSEQ++, %cSEQ--, and the percentages of sSEQ+- (%sSEQ+-) and sSEQ-+ (%sSEQ-+) in 12 young healthy subjects (age 23 ± 2 years, 3 females, 9 males) undergoing incremental head-up tilt.Main results.We found that: (i) %cSEQ++ and %cSEQ-- decreased with age and increased with STAND and postural stimulus intensity; (ii) %sSEQ+- and %sSEQ-+ augmented with postural challenge magnitude; (iii) the level of cardiac and sympathetic baroreflex engagement did not depend on either the absolute value of arterial pressure or the direction of its changes.Significance.This study stresses the limited ability of the cardiac and sympathetic arms of the baroreflex in controlling absolute arterial pressure values and the equivalent ability of both positive and negative arterial pressure changes in soliciting them.

Link Between Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Controls in Patients Undergoing Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement

Although the autonomic influence on cardiovascular (CV) and cerebrovascular (CBV) regulations has been widely recognized, their relationship is poorly explored especially in pathological situations. This study investigates the correlation between CV and CBV markers in 73 patients (48 males, age 63.6±13.1 yrs) undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) evaluated before the intervention (PRE), within 1-week post-surgery (POST) and after a 3-month follow-up (POST3). Patients were acquired before and after an orthostatic challenge. Frequency domain analysis assessing transfer function gain (TFG), phase (Ph), and squared coherence (K2) between heart period and systolic arterial pressure was exploited to evaluate CV control. The same frequency domain functions were derived to assess CBV regulation from mean cerebral blood velocity and mean arterial pressure. A correlation analysis between indexes of CV and CBV controls was carried out. Results showed that CV control was impaired in PRE, worsened in POST, and recovered in POST3, while CBV markers were almost unchanged. A significant positive relationship between CV and CBV markers was observed, especially in POST and POST3, thus suggesting that the compensation of a baroreflex impairment with a more efficient CBV control and vice versa. The maintenance of this relationship between CV and CBV controls in patients undergoing SAVR could be fundamental to prevent risky situations.Clinical Relevance- After surgical aortic valve replacement an impaired baroreflex control could be compensated by a more efficient cerebral autoregulation.

On the Different Abilities of Cross-Sample Entropy and K-Nearest-Neighbor Cross-Unpredictability in Assessing Dynamic Cardiorespiratory and Cerebrovascular Interactions

Nonlinear markers of coupling strength are often utilized to typify cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular regulations. The computation of these indices requires techniques describing nonlinear interactions between respiration (R) and heart period (HP) and between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood velocity (MCBv). We compared two model-free methods for the assessment of dynamic HP-R and MCBv-MAP interactions, namely the cross-sample entropy (CSampEn) and k-nearest-neighbor cross-unpredictability (KNNCUP). Comparison was carried out first over simulations generated by linear and nonlinear unidirectional causal, bidirectional linear causal, and lag-zero linear noncausal models, and then over experimental data acquired from 19 subjects at supine rest during spontaneous breathing and controlled respiration at 10, 15, and 20 breaths·minute-1 as well as from 13 subjects at supine rest and during 60° head-up tilt. Linear markers were computed for comparison. We found that: (i) over simulations, CSampEn and KNNCUP exhibit different abilities in evaluating coupling strength; (ii) KNNCUP is more reliable than CSampEn when interactions occur according to a causal structure, while performances are similar in noncausal models; (iii) in healthy subjects, KNNCUP is more powerful in characterizing cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular variability interactions than CSampEn and linear markers. We recommend KNNCUP for quantifying cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular coupling.

Analysis of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Directed Information Flow between Brain and Body Indicate Different Management Strategies of fMRI-Related Anxiety

Background: Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) denotes decrease of cardiac beat-to-beat intervals (RRI) during inspiration and RRI increase during expiration, but an inverse pattern (termed negative RSA) was also found in healthy humans with elevated anxiety. It was detected using wave-by-wave analysis of cardiorespiratory rhythms and was considered to reflect a strategy of anxiety management involving the activation of a neural pacemaker. Results were consistent with slow breathing, but contained uncertainty at normal breathing rates (0.2–0.4 Hz). Objectives and methods: We combined wave-by-wave analysis and directed information flow analysis to obtain information on anxiety management at higher breathing rates. We analyzed cardiorespiratory rhythms and blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals from the brainstem and cortex in 10 healthy fMRI participants with elevated anxiety. Results: Three subjects with slow respiratory, RRI, and neural BOLD oscillations showed 57 ± 26% negative RSA and significant anxiety reduction by 54 ± 9%. Six participants with breathing rate of ~0.3 Hz showed 41 ± 16% negative RSA and weaker anxiety reduction. They presented significant information flow from RRI to respiration and from the middle frontal cortex to the brainstem, which may result from respiration-entrained brain oscillations, indicating another anxiety management strategy. Conclusion: The two analytical approaches applied here indicate at least two different anxiety management strategies in healthy subjects.

Comparison of discretization strategies for the model-free information-theoretic assessment of short-term physiological interactions

This work presents a comparison between different approaches for the model-free estimation of information-theoretic measures of the dynamic coupling between short realizations of random processes. The measures considered are the mutual information rate (MIR) between two random processes X and Y and the terms of its decomposition evidencing either the individual entropy rates of X and Y and their joint entropy rate, or the transfer entropies from X to Y and from Y to X and the instantaneous information shared by X and Y. All measures are estimated through discretization of the random variables forming the processes, performed either via uniform quantization (binning approach) or rank ordering (permutation approach). The binning and permutation approaches are compared on simulations of two coupled non-identical Hènon systems and on three datasets, including short realizations of cardiorespiratory (CR, heart period and respiration flow), cardiovascular (CV, heart period and systolic arterial pressure), and cerebrovascular (CB, mean arterial pressure and cerebral blood flow velocity) measured in different physiological conditions, i.e., spontaneous vs paced breathing or supine vs upright positions. Our results show that, with careful selection of the estimation parameters (i.e., the embedding dimension and the number of quantization levels for the binning approach), meaningful patterns of the MIR and of its components can be achieved in the analyzed systems. On physiological time series, we found that paced breathing at slow breathing rates induces less complex and more coupled CR dynamics, while postural stress leads to unbalancing of CV interactions with prevalent baroreflex coupling and to less complex pressure dynamics with preserved CB interactions. These results are better highlighted by the permutation approach, thanks to its more parsimonious representation of the discretized dynamic patterns, which allows one to explore interactions with longer memory while limiting the curse of dimensionality.

The reciprocal relationship between cardiac baroreceptor sensitivity and cerebral autoregulation during simulated hemorrhage in humans

A reciprocal relationship between the baroreflex and cerebral autoregulation (CA) has been demonstrated at rest and in response to acute hypotension. We hypothesized that the reciprocal relationship between cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) and CA would be maintained during sustained central hypovolemia induced by lower body negative pressure (LBNP), and that the strength of this relationship would be greater in subjects with higher tolerance to this stress. Healthy young adults (n = 51; 23F/28M) completed a LBNP protocol to presyncope. Subjects were classified as high tolerant (HT; completion of -60 mmHg LBNP stage, ≥20-min) or low tolerant (LT; did not complete -60 mmHg LBNP stage, <20-min). R-R intervals (RRI), systolic arterial pressure (SAP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and middle cerebral artery velocity (MCAv) were measured continuously. Cardiac BRS was calculated in the time domain (ΔHR/ΔSAP) and frequency domain (RRI-SAP low frequency (LF) transfer function gain), and CA was calculated in the time domain (ΔMCAv/ΔMAP) and frequency domain (MAP-mean MCAv LF transfer function gain). There was a moderate relationship between cardiac BRS and CA for the group of 51 subjects in both the time (R = -0.54, P < 0.0001) and frequency (R = 0.61, P < 0.001) domains; there was a stronger relationship in the HT group (R = 0.73) compared to the LT group (R = 0.31) in the frequency domain (P = 0.08), but no difference between groups in the time domain (HT: R = -0.73 vs. LT: R = -0.63; P = 0.27). These findings suggest that an interaction between BRS and CA may be an important compensatory mechanism that contributes to tolerance to simulated hemorrhage in young healthy adults.

Spectral decomposition of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular interactions in patients prone to postural syncope and healthy controls

We present a framework for the linear parametric analysis of pairwise interactions in bivariate time series in the time and frequency domains, which allows the evaluation of total, causal and instantaneous interactions and connects time- and frequency-domain measures. The framework is applied to physiological time series to investigate the cerebrovascular regulation from the variability of mean cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFV) and mean arterial pressure (MAP), and the cardiovascular regulation from the variability of heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP). We analyze time series acquired at rest and during the early and late phase of head-up tilt in subjects developing orthostatic syncope in response to prolonged postural stress, and in healthy controls. The spectral measures of total, causal and instantaneous coupling between HP and SAP, and between MAP and CBFV, are averaged in the low-frequency band of the spectrum to focus on specific rhythms, and over all frequencies to get time-domain measures. The analysis of cardiovascular interactions indicates that postural stress induces baroreflex involvement, and its prolongation induces baroreflex dysregulation in syncope subjects. The analysis of cerebrovascular interactions indicates that the postural stress enhances the total coupling between MAP and CBFV, and challenges cerebral autoregulation in syncope subjects, while the strong sympathetic activation elicited by prolonged postural stress in healthy controls may determine an increased coupling from CBFV to MAP during late tilt. These results document that the combination of time-domain and spectral measures allows us to obtain an integrated view of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular regulation in healthy and diseased subjects.

Exploring metrics for the characterization of the cerebral autoregulation during head-up tilt and propofol general anesthesia

Techniques grounded on the simultaneous utilization of Tiecks' second order differential equations and spontaneous variability of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MCBFV), recorded from middle cerebral arteries through a transcranial Doppler device, provide a characterization of cerebral autoregulation (CA) via the autoregulation index (ARI). These methods exploit two metrics for comparing the measured MCBFV series with the version predicted by Tiecks' model: normalized mean square prediction error (NMSPE) and normalized correlation ρ. The aim of this study is to assess the two metrics for ARI computation in 13 healthy subjects (age: 27 ± 8 yrs., 5 males) at rest in supine position (REST) and during 60° head-up tilt (HUT) and in 19 patients (age: 64 ± 8 yrs., all males), scheduled for coronary artery bypass grafting, before (PRE) and after (POST) propofol general anesthesia induction. Analyses were carried out over the original MAP and MCBFV pairs and surrogate unmatched couples built individually via time-shifting procedure. We found that: i) NMSPE and ρ metrics exhibited similar performances in passing individual surrogate test; ii) the two metrics could lead to different ARI estimates; iii) CA was not different during HUT or POST compared to baseline and this conclusion held regardless of the technique and metric for ARI estimation. Results suggest a limited impact of the sympathetic control on CA.

Comparing Cross-Sample Entropy and K-Nearest-Neighbor Cross-Predictability Approaches for the Evaluation of Cardiorespiratory and Cerebrovascular Dynamic Interactions

Quantification of the cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular couplings is a relevant clinical issue given that their changes are considered signs of pathological status. The inherent nonlinearity of mechanisms underlying cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular links requires nonlinear tools for their reliable evaluation. In the present study we compare two nonlinear methods for the assessment of coupling strength between two time series, namely cross-sample entropy (CSampEn) and k-nearest-neighbor cross-predictability (KNNCP). CSampEn uses a strategy that fixes the pattern length, while KNNCP optimizes the pattern length to maximize cross-predictability. CSampEn and KNNCP were applied to the beat-to-beat series of heart period (HP) and respiration (R) during a controlled breathing protocol with the aim at assessing cardiorespiratory coupling and to the beat-to-beat series of mean cerebral blood flow (MCBF) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) during an orthostatic stressor with the aim at evaluating cerebrovascular coupling. Although both the methods have the possibility to quantify the degree of HP-R and MCBF-MAP association, they exhibited different statistical power and even diverse trends in response to the considered physiological challenges. CSampEn and KNNCP are not interchangeable and should be utilized in association more than in alternative for the quantification of the HP-R and MCBF-MAP coupling strength. Clinical Relevance - This study proves that cross-entropy and cross-predictability might lead to different conclusions about cardiorespiratory and cerebrovascular couplings.

The effects of exercise training in the cold on cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular function in young healthy individuals

Exercise elicits acute increases in cerebral blood flow velocity (CBFv) and provokes long-term beneficial effects on CBFv, thereby reducing cerebrovascular risk. Acute exposure to a cold stimulus also increases CBFv. We compared the impact of exercise training in cold and thermoneutral environments on CFBv, cerebrovascular function and peripheral endothelial function. Twenty-one (16 males, 22 ± 5 years) individuals were randomly allocated to either a cold (5 °C) or thermoneutral (15 °C) exercise intervention. Exercise consisted of 50-min cycling at 70% heart rate max, three times per week for eight weeks. Transcranial Doppler was used to determine pre and post intervention CBFv, dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) and cerebrovascular reactivity (CVRCO2). Conduit endothelial function, microvascular function and cardiorespiratory fitness were also assessed. Cardiorespiratory fitness improved (2.91 ml.min.kg-1, 95%CI 0.49, 5.3; P = 0.02), regardless of exercise setting. Neither intervention had an impact on CBFv, CVRCO2, FMD or microvascular function (P > 0.05). There was a significant interaction between time and condition for dCA normalised gain with evidence of a decrease by 0.192%cm.s-1.%mmHg-1 (95%CI -0.318, -0.065) following training in the cold and increase (0.129%cm.s-1.%mmHg-1, 95%CI 0.011, 0.248) following training in the thermoneutral environment (P = 0.001). This was also evident for dCA phase with evidence of an increase by 0.072 rad (95%CI -0.007, 0.152) following training in the cold and decrease by 0.065 (95%CI -0.144, 0.014) radians following training in the thermoneutral environment (P = 0.02). Both training interventions improved fitness but CBFv, CVRCO2 and peripheral endothelial function were unaltered. Exercise training in the cold improved dCA whereas thermoneutral negated dCA.

Dynamic Temporal Relationship Between Autonomic Function and Cerebrovascular Reactivity in Moderate/Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

There has been little change in morbidity and mortality in traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the last 25 years. However, literature has emerged linking impaired cerebrovascular reactivity (a surrogate of cerebral autoregulation) with poor outcomes post-injury. Thus, cerebrovascular reactivity (derived through the pressure reactivity index; PRx) is emerging as an important continuous measure. Furthermore, recent literature indicates that autonomic dysfunction may drive impaired cerebrovascular reactivity in moderate/severe TBI. Thus, to improve our understanding of this association, we assessed the physiological relationship between PRx and the autonomic variables of heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability (BPV), and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) using time-series statistical methodologies. These methodologies include vector autoregressive integrative moving average (VARIMA) impulse response function analysis, Granger causality, and hierarchical clustering. Granger causality testing displayed inconclusive results, where PRx and the autonomic variables had varying bidirectional relationships. Evaluating the temporal profile of the impulse response function plots demonstrated that the autonomic variables of BRS, ratio of low/high frequency of HRV and very low frequency HRV all had a strong relation to PRx, indicating that the sympathetic autonomic response may be more closely linked to cerebrovascular reactivity, then other variables. Finally, BRS was consistently associated with PRx, possibly demonstrating a deeper relationship to PRx than other autonomic measures. Taken together, cerebrovascular reactivity and autonomic response are interlinked, with a bidirectional impact between cerebrovascular reactivity and circulatory autonomics. However, this work is exploratory and preliminary, with further study required to extract and confirm any underlying relationships.

Monitoring the Evolution of Asynchrony between Mean Arterial Pressure and Mean Cerebral Blood Flow via Cross-Entropy Methods

Cerebrovascular control is carried out by multiple nonlinear mechanisms imposing a certain degree of coupling between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow (MCBF). We explored the ability of two nonlinear tools in the information domain, namely cross-approximate entropy (CApEn) and cross-sample entropy (CSampEn), to assess the degree of asynchrony between the spontaneous fluctuations of MAP and MCBF. CApEn and CSampEn were computed as a function of the translation time. The analysis was carried out in 23 subjects undergoing recordings at rest in supine position (REST) and during active standing (STAND), before and after surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR). We found that at REST the degree of asynchrony raised, and the rate of increase in asynchrony with the translation time decreased after SAVR. These results are likely the consequence of the limited variability of MAP observed after surgery at REST, more than the consequence of a modified cerebrovascular control, given that the observed differences disappeared during STAND. CApEn and CSampEn can be utilized fruitfully in the context of the evaluation of cerebrovascular control via the noninvasive acquisition of the spontaneous MAP and MCBF variability.

Categorizing the Role of Respiration in Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Variability Interactions

OBJECTIVE

Respiration disturbs cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls but its role is not fully elucidated.

METHODS

Respiration can be classified as a confounder if its observation reduces the strength of the causal relationship from source to target. Respiration is a suppressor if the opposite situation holds. We prove that a confounding/suppression (C/S) test can be accomplished by evaluating the sign of net redundancy/synergy balance in the predictability framework based on multivariate autoregressive modelling. In addition, we suggest that, under the hypothesis of Gaussian processes, the C/S test can be given in the transfer entropy decomposition framework as well. Experimental protocols: We applied the C/S test to variability series of respiratory movements, heart period, systolic arterial pressure, mean arterial pressure, and mean cerebral blood flow recorded in 17 pathological individuals (age: 648 yrs; 17 males) before and after induction of propofol-based general anesthesia prior to coronary artery bypass grafting, and in 13 healthy subjects (age: 278 yrs; 5 males) at rest in supine position and during head-up tilt with a table inclination of 60.

RESULTS

Respiration behaved systematically as a confounder for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls. In addition, its role was affected by propofol-based general anesthesia but not by a postural stimulus of limited intensity.

CONCLUSION

The C/S test can be fruitfully exploited to categorize the role of respiration over causal variability interactions.

SIGNIFICANCE

The application of the C/S test could favor the comprehension of the role of respiration in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular regulations.

Dynamic cerebrovascular autoregulation in patients prone to postural syncope: Comparison of techniques assessing the autoregulation index from spontaneous variability series

Three approaches to the assessment of cerebrovascular autoregulation (CA) via the computation of the autoregulation index (ARI) from spontaneous variability of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MCBFV) were applied: 1) a time domain method (TDM); 2) a nonparametric method (nonPM); 3) a parametric method (PM). Performances were tested over matched and surrogate unmatched pairs. Data were analyzed at supine resting (REST) and during the early phase of 60° head-up tilt (TILT) in 13 subjects with previous history of postural syncope (SYNC, age: 28 ± 9 yrs.; 5 males) and 13 control individuals (noSYNC, age: 27 ± 8 yrs.; 5 males). Analysis was completed by computing autonomic markers from heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) variability series via spectral approach. HP and SAP spectral indexes suggested that noSYNC and SYNC groups exhibited different autonomic responses to TILT. ARI analysis indicated that: i) all methods have a sufficient statistical power to separate matched from unmatched pairs with the exception of nonPM applied to impulse response; ii) ARI estimates derived from different methods might be uncorrelated and, even when correlated, might exhibit a significant bias; iii) orthostatic stressor did not induce any evident ARI change in either noSYNC or SYNC individuals; iv) this conclusion held regardless of the method. Methods for the ARI estimation from spontaneous variability provide different ARIs but none indicate that noSYNC and SYNC subjects have different dynamic component of CA.

Respiration is a Confounder of the Closed Loop Relationship Between Mean Arterial Pressure and Mean Cerebral Blood Flow

This study tested the hypothesis that respiration (RESP) is a confounder or suppressor of the closed loop relationship responsible for the cerebrovascular dynamical interactions as assessed from spontaneous variability of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow (MCBF). The evaluation was carried out in the information domain via transfer entropy (TE) estimated through a linear model-based approach comparing TE markers computed solely over MAP and MCBF series with TE indexes accounting for the eventual action of RESP over MAP and MCBF. We considered 11 patients (age: 76±5 yrs, 7 males) undergoing surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) at supine resting (REST) and during active standing (STAND) before and after SAVR surgery. The decrease of the predictive ability of MCBF to MAP when accounting for RESP compared to the one assessed when disregarding RESP suggested that RESP is a confounder of the link from MCBF to MAP along the Cushing reflex instead of being a suppressor. This result was more evident in POST when autonomic control was dramatically depressed and in an unchallenged condition such as REST. RESP did not affect significantly the link from MAP to MCBF along the pressure-to-flow relationship. Clarification of the type of RESP influence on the MAP-MCBF closed loop relationship could favor a deeper characterization of cerebrovascular interactions and the comprehension of cerebral autoregulation mechanisms.Clinical Relevance- This study suggests that respiration is a confounder of the closed loop relationship between MAP and MCBF, especially of the flow-to-pressure causal link. This result might open new possibilities in elucidating the mechanisms of cerebral autoregulation in healthy and pathological populations.

A multiscale model of cerebral autoregulation

The mechanism of cerebral autoregulation ensures a continuous and sufficient blood supply to the brain to maintain normal function in the presence of changes in blood pressure. Impaired cerebral autoregulation is implicated in a range of brain diseases. We thus present here a multiscale model of cerebral autoregulation to provide a more detailed basis for a better understanding of the mechanisms behind impaired autoregulation. This model is built around a model of single arteriole, which includes a model of Nitric Oxide (NO) transport, the myogenic response, and a 4-state kinetic model coupled to a mechanical model of the vessel wall. In particular, the NO component of the model is added here to better understand the interaction mode between NO and the myogenic response, since the role of NO, the recognized effective vasodilator, is poorly understood in this context. This vessel model is then integrated within a model of the full-brain vasculature. The model is validated using a range of experimental data from the literature, both steady-state and dynamic. The model is able to predict the response of the arteriole to changes in both driving pressure and baseline pressure, indicating that the model captures well the balance between the myogenic and metabolic mechanisms. We next plan to examine the ways in which impaired autoregulation is manifested in different patient groups, potentially leading to improved therapy.

Using complexity-entropy planes to detect Parkinson's disease from short segments of haemodynamic signals

Objective. There is emerging evidence that analysing the entropy and complexity of biomedical signals can detect underlying changes in physiology which may be reflective of disease pathology. This approach can be used even when only short recordings of biomedical signals are available. This study aimed to determine whether entropy and complexity measures can detect differences between subjects with Parkinsons disease and healthy controls (HCs).Approach. A method based on a diagram of entropy versus complexity, named complexity-entropy plane, was used to re-analyse a dataset of cerebral haemodynamic signals from subjects with Parkinsons disease and HCs obtained under poikilocapnic conditions. A probability distribution for a set of ordinal patterns, designed to capture regularities in a time series, was computed from each signal under analysis. Four types of entropy and ten types of complexity measures were estimated from these distributions. Mean values of entropy and complexity were compared and their classification power was assessed by evaluating the best linear separator on the corresponding complexity-entropy planes.Main results. Few linear separators obtained significantly better classification, evaluated as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, than signal mean values. However, significant differences in both entropy and complexity were detected between the groups of participants.Significance. Measures of entropy and complexity were able to detect differences between healthy volunteers and subjects with Parkinson's disease, in poikilocapnic conditions, even though only short recordings were available for analysis. Further work is needed to refine this promising approach, and to help understand the findings in the context of specific pathophysiological changes.

Evaluation of the impact of surgical aortic valve replacement on short-term cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls through spontaneous variability analysis

We assessed the effect of surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls via spontaneous variability analyses of heart period, approximated as the temporal distance between two consecutive R-wave peaks on the electrocardiogram (RR), systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure (SAP, DAP and MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow (MCBF). Powers in specific frequency bands, complexity, presence of nonlinear dynamics and markers of cardiac baroreflex and cerebral autoregulation were calculated. Variability series were acquired before (PRE) and after (POST) SAVR in 11 patients (age: 76±5 yrs, 7 males) at supine resting and during active standing. Parametric spectral analysis was performed based on the autoregressive model. Complexity was assessed via a local nonlinear prediction approach exploiting the k-nearest-neighbor strategy. The presence of nonlinear dynamics was checked by comparing the complexity marker computed over the original series with the distribution of the same index assessed over a set of surrogates preserving distribution and power spectral density of the original series. Cardiac baroreflex and cerebral autoregulation were estimated by assessing the transfer function from SAP to RR and from MAP to MCBF and squared coherence function via the bivariate autoregressive approach. We found that: i) orthostatic challenge had no effect on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular control markers in PRE; ii) RR variance was significantly reduced in POST; iii) complexity of SAP, DAP and MAP variabilities increased in POST with a greater likelihood of observing nonlinear dynamics over SAP compared to PRE at supine resting; iv) the amplitude of MCBF variations and MCBF complexity in POST remained similar to PRE; v) cardiac baroreflex sensitivity decreased in POST, while cerebrovascular autoregulation was preserved. SAVR induces important changes of cardiac and vascular autonomic controls and baroreflex regulation in patients exhibiting poor reactivity of cardiovascular regulatory mechanisms, while cerebrovascular autoregulation seems to be less affected.

Complexity and Nonlinearities of Short-Term Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Controls after Surgical Aortic Valve Replacement

We assessed the effect of surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular controls with particular attention to their complexity and presence of nonlinear behaviors via the analysis of spontaneous variability of heart period (HP), systolic and diastolic arterial pressure (SAP and DAP) and mean cerebral blood flow (MCBF). Variability series were acquired before (PRE) and after (POST) SAVR in 12 patients (age: 76±4.7 yrs, 7 males) at rest in supine position and during active standing. Complexity was assessed via a local nonlinear prediction approach exploiting the k-nearest neighbor strategy. The presence of nonlinear dynamics was checked by comparing the complexity marker computed over the original series with the distribution of values assessed over 100 surrogates preserving distribution and power spectral density of the original series but with random phases. We found that: i) HP variance was significantly reduced in POST; ii) the complexity of SAP and DAP variabilities increased in POST with a greater likelihood of observing nonlinear dynamics over SAP compared to PRE at supine rest; iii) the amplitude of MCBF fluctuations and its complexity in POST remained similar to PRE. SAVR induces important changes of the cardiac and vascular autonomic controls, while cerebrovascular regulation seems to be less affected.

Strength and Latency of the HP-SAP Closed Loop Variability Interactions in Subjects Prone to Develop Postural Syncope

The coupling and latency between heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) variability can be investigated along the two arms of the HP-SAP closed loop, namely along the baroreflex feedback from SAP to HP, and along the feedforward pathway from HP to SAP. This study investigates the HP-SAP closed loop variability interactions through cross-correlation function (CCF). Coupling strength and delay between HP and SAP variability series were monitored in 13 subjects prone to develop orthostatic syncope (SYNC, 28±9 yrs, 5 males) and in 13 subjects with no history of postural syncope (noSYNC, age: 27±8 yrs, 5 males). Analysis was carried out at rest in supine position (REST) and during head-up tilt (TILT) at 60 degrees. The null hypothesis of HP-SAP uncoupling was tested through a surrogate analysis associating the HP series of a subject with a SAP sequence of a different one. Results showed that during TILT the coupling strength increased along the baroreflex and latency augmented along the mechanical feedforward pathway exclusively in noSYNC subjects. Finally, closed loop HP-SAP interactions were detected in about one third of subjects and the situation of full uncoupling was rarely found. CCF analysis was found to be a straightforward and easily applicable method to investigate HP-SAP control deserving a direct comparison with more sophisticated signal processing tools assessing causality.

Causality analysis reveals the link between cerebrovascular control and acute kidney dysfunction after coronary artery bypass grafting

BACKGROUND

Patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery might experience postoperative complications and some of them, such as acute kidney dysfunction (AKD), are the likely consequence of hypoperfusion. We hypothesized that an impaired cerebrovascular control is a hallmark of a vascular damage that might favor AKD after CABG.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim is to characterize cerebrovascular control in CABG patients through the assessment of the relationship between mean arterial pressure (MAP) and mean cerebral blood flow velocity (MCBFV) and to check whether markers describing MCBFV-MAP dynamical interactions could identify subjects at risk to develop postoperative AKD.

APPROACH

MAP and MCBFV beat-to-beat series were extracted from invasive arterial pressure and transcranial Doppler recordings acquired simultaneously in 23 patients just before CABG after the induction of propofol general anesthesia. Subjects were divided into AKD group (n  =  9, age: 68  ±  9, 8 males) and noAKD group (n  =  14, age: 65  ±  8, 12 males) according to whether they developed postoperative AKD or not after CABG. We computed MAP and MCBFV time-domain and spectral markers as well as MCBFV-MAP cross-spectral indexes in very-low-frequency (VLF, 0.02-0.07 Hz), low-frequency (LF, 0.07-0.15 Hz) and high-frequency (HF, 0.15-0.30 Hz) bands. We also calculated model-based transfer entropy (TE) to quantify the degree of MCBFV dependence on MAP and vice versa. The null hypothesis of MCBFV-MAP uncoupling was tested via a surrogate approach associating MAP and MCBFV in different patients.

MAIN RESULTS

Time, spectral and cross-spectral markers had a limited power in separating AKD from noAKD individuals. Conversely, TE from MAP to MCBFV was significantly above the level set by surrogates only in AKD groups and significantly larger than that computed in noAKD.

SIGNIFICANCE

The reduced cerebrovascular autoregulation in AKD patients suggest a vascular impairment likely making them more at risk of hypoperfusion during CABG and AKD after CABG.

Spinal Cord Disruption Is Associated with a Loss of Cushing-Like Blood Pressure Interactions

The capacity of the cerebrovasculature to buffer changes in blood pressure (BP) likely plays an important role in the prevention of stroke, which is three- to fourfold more common after spinal cord injury (SCI). Although the directional relationship between BP and cerebral blood flow (CBF) has traditionally been thought to travel solely from BP to CBF, a Cushing-like mechanism functioning in the inverse direction, in which changes in CBF influence BP, has recently been revealed using Granger causality analysis. Although both CBF buffering of BP and the Cushing-like mechanism are influenced by the sympathetic nervous system, we do not understand the impact of disruption of descending sympathetic pathways within the spinal cord, caused by cervical SCI on these regulatory systems. We hypothesized that people with cervical SCI would have greater BP to CBF transmission, as well as a reduced Cushing-like mechanism. The directional relationships between mean arterial BP (MAP; Finometer^® PRO) and middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv; transcranial Doppler) were assessed at rest in 14 cervical SCI subjects and 16 uninjured individuals using Granger causality analysis, while also accounting for end-tidal CO₂ tension. Those with SCI exhibited 66% increased forward MAP→MCAv information transmission as compared with the uninjured group (p = 0.0003), indicating reduced cerebrovascular buffering of BP, and did not have a predominant backward Cushing-like MCAv→MAP phenotype. These results indicate that both forward and backward communication between BP and CBF are influenced by SCI, which may be associated with impaired cerebrovascular BP buffering after SCI as well as widespread BP instability.

Entropy Measures in Analysis of Head up Tilt Test Outcome for Diagnosing Vasovagal Syncope

The paper presents possible applications of entropy measures in analysis of biosignals recorded during head up tilt testing (HUTT) in patients with suspected vasovagal syndrome. The study group comprised 80 patients who developed syncope during HUTT (57 in the passive phase of the test (HUTT(+) group) and 23 who had negative result of passive phase and developed syncope after provocation with nitroglycerine (HUTT(−) group)). The paper focuses on assessment of monitored signals’ complexity (heart rate expressed as R-R intervals (RRI), blood pressure (sBP, dBP) and stroke volume (SV)) using various types of entropy measures (Sample Entropy (SE), Fuzzy Entropy (FE), Shannon Entropy (Sh), Conditional Entropy (CE), Permutation Entropy (PE)). Assessment of the complexity of signals in supine position indicated presence of significant differences between HUTT(+) versus HUTT(−) patients only for Conditional Entropy (CE(RRI)). Values of CE(RRI) higher than 0.7 indicate likelihood of a positive result of HUTT already at the passive phase. During tilting, in the pre-syncope phase, significant differences were found for: (SE(sBP), SE(dBP), FE(RRI), FE(sBP), FE(dBP), FE(SV), Sh(sBP), Sh(SV), CE(sBP), CE(dBP)). HUTT(+) patients demonstrated significant changes in signals’ complexity more frequently than HUTT(−) patients. When comparing entropy measurements done in the supine position with those during tilting, SV assessed in HUTT(+) patients was the only parameter for which all tested measures of entropy (SE(SV), FE(SV), Sh(SV), CE(SV), PE(SV)) showed significant differences.

Is the Cushing mechanism a dynamic blood pressure-stabilizing system? Insights from Granger causality analysis of spontaneous blood pressure and cerebral blood flow

Blood pressure (BP) regulation is widely recognized as being integral to the control of end-organ perfusion, but it remains unclear whether end-organ perfusion also plays a role in driving changes in BP. A randomized and placebo-controlled study design was followed to examine feedback relationships between very-low-frequency fluctuations in BP and cerebral blood flow (CBF) in humans under placebo treatment and α₁-adrenergic blockade. To determine the causal relations among hemodynamic variables, BP, middle cerebral artery blood velocity (MCAv), and end-tidal CO ₂ time-series were decimated, low-pass filtered (<0.07 Hz), fitted to vector autoregressive models, and tested for Granger causality in the time domain. Results showed that 1) at baseline, changes in BP and MCAv often interact in a closed-loop; and 2) α₁-adrenergic blockade results in the dominant causal direction from BP to MCAv. These results suggest that, between subjects, cerebral pressure-flow interactions at time scales < 0.07 Hz are frequently bidirectional, and that in the presence of an intact autonomic nervous system BP may be regulated by reflex pathways sensitive to changes in CBF.

Intracranial Pressure Is a Determinant of Sympathetic Activity

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is the pressure within the cranium. ICP rise compresses brain vessels and reduces cerebral blood delivery. Massive ICP rise leads to cerebral ischemia, but it is also known to produce hypertension, bradycardia and respiratory irregularities due to a sympatho-adrenal mechanism termed Cushing response. One still unresolved question is whether the Cushing response is a non-synaptic acute brainstem ischemic mechanism or part of a larger physiological reflex for arterial blood pressure control and homeostasis regulation. We hypothesize that changes in ICP modulates sympathetic activity. Thus, modest ICP increase and decrease were achieved in mice and patients with respectively intra-ventricular and lumbar fluid infusion. Sympathetic activity was gauged directly by microneurography, recording renal sympathetic nerve activity in mice and muscle sympathetic nerve activity in patients, and gauged indirectly in both species by heart-rate variability analysis. In mice (n = 15), renal sympathetic activity increased from 29.9 ± 4.0 bursts.s⁻¹ (baseline ICP 6.6 ± 0.7 mmHg) to 45.7 ± 6.4 bursts.s⁻¹ (plateau ICP 38.6 ± 1.0 mmHg) and decreased to 34.8 ± 5.6 bursts.s⁻¹ (post-infusion ICP 9.1 ± 0.8 mmHg). In patients (n = 10), muscle sympathetic activity increased from 51.2 ± 2.5 bursts.min⁻¹ (baseline ICP 8.3 ± 1.0 mmHg) to 66.7 ± 2.9 bursts.min⁻¹ (plateau ICP 25 ± 0.3 mmHg) and decreased to 58.8 ± 2.6 bursts.min⁻¹ (post-infusion ICP 14.8 ± 0.9 mmHg). In patients 7 mmHg ICP rise significantly increases sympathetic activity by 17%. Heart-rate variability analysis demonstrated a significant vagal withdrawal during the ICP rise, in accordance with the microneurography findings. Mice and human results are alike. We demonstrate in animal and human that ICP is a reversible determinant of efferent sympathetic outflow, even at relatively low ICP levels. ICP is a biophysical stress related to the forces within the brain. But ICP has also to be considered as a physiological stressor, driving sympathetic activity. The results suggest a novel physiological ICP-mediated sympathetic modulation circuit and the existence of a possible intracranial (i.e., central) baroreflex. Modest ICP rise might participate to the pathophysiology of cardio-metabolic homeostasis imbalance with sympathetic over-activity, and to the pathogenesis of sympathetically-driven diseases.

Model-based directional analysis of cardiovascular variability identifies patients developing atrial fibrillation after coronary artery bypass grafting

BACKGROUND

Postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) might be favored by cardiovascular control impairment. We hypothesize that cardiovascular regulation indexes derived from directional model-based analysis of the spontaneous fluctuations of heart period (HP) and systolic arterial pressure (SAP) can identify subjects at risk to develop AF after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery.

METHODS

Beat-to-beat HP and SAP series were derived from electrocardiogram (ECG) and invasive arterial pressure recorded for 5 min just before CABG surgery in conscious condition. The group comprised subjects who did develop AF (AF, n = 37, 71 ± 8 years, 27 males) or did not (noAF, n = 92, 65 ± 10 years, 85 males). From HP and SAP variabilities we computed classical time-domain, spectral, cross-spectral and complexity indexes characterizing autonomic function and cardiac baroreflex control. Moreover, we performed model-based directional analysis assessing the gain and strength of the relations from SAP to HP along cardiac baroreflex feedback and from HP to SAP along the feedforward pathway while disambiguating the effect of respiration as estimated from respiratory-related ECG modulations.

RESULTS

Classical HP and SAP variability indexes and baroreflex sensitivity could not separate AF from noAF individuals. Causality markers, and more specifically, the strength of the dynamical interactions from SAP to HP and vice versa, could distinguish the two groups: indeed, AFs have a lower degree of association from SAP to HP and vice versa.

CONCLUSIONS

An impairment of the feedforward and feedback arms of the HP-SAP closed loop relation predisposes subjects undergoing CABG surgery to develop postoperative AF.

PERSPECTIVES

Competency in medical knowledge: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a frequent complication after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery lengthening hospitalization duration and increasing healthcare system costs. Translational outlook 1: CABG patients who developed AF had a less preserved cardiovascular interactions due to less active physiological control mechanisms as resulting from the lower degree of dependence of systolic arterial pressure on heart period and vice versa before CABG surgery. Translational outlook 2: Cardiovascular control markers improve stratification of the AF risk after CABG surgery above and beyond more traditional demographic and clinical indexes.

Inter-individual Relationships between Sympathetic Arterial Baroreflex Function and Cerebral Perfusion Control in Healthy Males

Maintenance of adequate cerebral perfusion during normal physiological challenges requires integration between cerebral blood flow (CBF) and systemic blood pressure control mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that cardiac baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) is inversely related to some measures of cerebral autoregulation. However, interactions between the sympathetic arterial baroreflex and cerebral perfusion control mechanisms have not been explored. To determine the nature and magnitude of these interactions we measured R–R interval, blood pressure, CBF velocity, and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in 11 healthy young males. Sympathetic BRS was estimated using modified Oxford method as the relationship between beat-to-beat diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and MSNA. Integrated control of CBF was quantified using transfer function analysis (TFA) metrics derived during rest and Tieck's autoregulatory index following bilateral thigh cuff deflation. Sympathetic BRS during modified Oxford trials was significantly related to autoregulatory index (r = 0.64, p = 0.03). Sympathetic BRS during spontaneous baseline was significantly related to transfer function gain (r = −0.74, p = 0.01). A more negative value for sympathetic BRS indicates more effective arterial baroreflex regulation, and a lower transfer function gain reflects greater cerebral autoregulation. Therefore, these findings indicate that males with attenuated CBF regulation have greater sympathetic BRS (and vice versa), consistent with compensatory interactions between blood pressure and cerebral perfusion control mechanisms.