Heart Rate Asymmetry Analysis Using Poincaré Plot

Abstract

Physiological systems are inherently complex and subject to energy, entropy and information fluxes across their boundaries. These systems function in disequilibrium in healthy condition and their self-organizing capability is related to asymmetricity of the underlying processes (Costa et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95:1–4, 2005). In pathological perturbations, a loss of self-organizing capability associated with aging or disease is a function of loss of asymmetricity (Costa et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 95:1–4, 2005). Intuitively, asymmetry refers to the lack of symmetry; in other words, the distribution of signals is imbalanced. This imbalance or dissimilarity can easily be observed in geometry of the..