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Chaos in the Heart: Implications for Clinical Cardiology

Bio/Technology volume 8, pages 1018–1024 (1990)Cite this article

Abstract

Mathematical “chaos” appears to occur in the heartbeat time-series. Low-dimensional chaos can be visualized as a geometric or spatial pattern in a temporal process. Several methods are available for representing these geometric patterns, including the mutual information content, the correlation dimension, and the type of pattern recurrences. Application of these methods to the heartbeat following coronary artery occlusion shows that prior to the initiation of lethal arrhythmogenesis the mutual information increases, the correlation dimension decreases, and the recurrence patterns shift from periodic clustering to local clustering. These observations not only have implications for new theoretical approaches to understanding how the heartbeat is generated and how arrhythmias occur, but also for the development of new biomedical tests and the manufacture of new devices for use in clinical cardiology.

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Author information

Author notes

  1. James E. Skinner: Corresponding author.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Baylor College of Medicine, MS F603, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, TX, 77030

    James E. Skinner

  2. G2-435, Beth Israel Hospital, 330 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA, 02215

    Ary L. Goldberger

  3. Dept. Mathematics, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064

    Gottfried Mayer-Kress

  4. Duke University Medical Center, Box 3140, Durham, NC, 27710

    Raymond E. Ideker

Authors
  1. James E. Skinner
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  2. Ary L. Goldberger
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  3. Gottfried Mayer-Kress
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  4. Raymond E. Ideker
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Skinner, J., Goldberger, A., Mayer-Kress, G. et al. Chaos in the Heart: Implications for Clinical Cardiology. Nat Biotechnol 8, 1018–1024 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1190-1018

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