Chaos-related deterministic regulation of heart rate variability in time- and frequency domains: effects of autonomic blockade and exercise.

OBJECTIVES To study non-linear complexity or chaotic behaviour of heart rate in short time series and its dependence on autonomic tone. METHODS Ten healthy individuals (5 men, mean age 44 years) were investigated at rest, after intravenous injections of propranolol (0.15 mg/kg), followed by atropine (0.03 mg/kg). On another occasion, investigation was made during exercise on a bicycle ergometer at 40% and at 70% of maximal working capacity. Heart rate variability was assessed by: local sensitive dependence on initial conditions as quantitated by the dominant Lyapunov exponent, coefficient of variation of heart rate, power spectral analysis of high- and low-frequency bands and the 1/f-slope of the very-low-frequency band and time domain analysis. RESULTS The approximate dominant Lyapunov exponent was positive at rest and remained positive during autonomic blockade and during exercise. The exponent decreased significantly with propranolol+atropine and even more so during exercise but did not attain zero. At baseline approximate predictability was lost after about 30 s whereas after autonomic blockade or exercise it was lost after about 60 s. The 1/f-slope remained unaltered around -1. As expected, power in high- and low-frequency bands as well as time domain index decreased significantly with autonomic blockade. The low-frequency band and time domain index were affected by exercise. CONCLUSIONS Heart rate variability of sinus rhythm in healthy individuals has characteristics suggestive of low-dimensional chaos-like determinism which is modulated but not eliminated by inhibition of autonomic tone or by exercise. The dominant Lyapunov exponent characterises heart rate variability independent or the other investigated measures.