Application to biomedical signals - Practical Biomedical Signal Analysis Using MATLAB - page 183

FIGURE 4.32: a) Tachogram during coronary artery occlusion. b) Spectra calcu-
lated from signal shown. Frequency—horizontal axis, time—oblique axis. S and E
mark the beginning and end of occlusion respectively. From [Mainardi et al., 1995].

4.2.2.3 Relation of HRV to other signals

Blood pressure, respiration, and HRV are mutually related and the study of the
relationships between these signals is a rich source of information on the function
of the autonomous nervous system and its pathologies. In particular, cross-spectral
analysis is a helpful tool in simultaneous analysis of these signals. The methodology
and clinical applications of mutual analysis of HRV and blood pressure are described
in [Baselli et al., 1988] and [Rienzo et al., 1993].
The possibility of performing a sleep evaluation on the basis of HRV and respira-
tory signal was indicated in [Bianchi et al., 2010]. The HRV and the respiration were
analyzed in the frequency domain, and the statistics on the spectral and cross-spectral
parameters put into evidence the possibility of sleep staging, arousals detection, and
apnea recognition on their basis. This method may be especially useful for home
monitoring of sleep.