• Dirk Hoyer, Birgit Frank, Christine Götze, Hendrik Schmidt, Rafal Baranowski, Jan J Zebrowski, Montserrat Vallverdú, Pere Caminal, Antonio Bayés De Luna, Kathrin Falkenhahn, Karl-Jürgen Bär, and Phyllis K Stein.
• Biomagnetic Center, Department of Neurology, Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany. dirk.hoyer@biomag.uni-jena.de
• Biomed Tech (Berl). 2006 Oct 1;51(4):182-5.

BackgroundThe cardiovascular control system is mediated by mechanisms acting at different time scales, such as heart period, vagal, sympathetic, and other slower controllers. Since these elements are interrelated in a complex manner, classical control theory fails and information-based description, based on autonomic information flow (AIF) functions, is appropriate. We investigated the hypothesis that AIF functions of typical time scales specifically characterize autonomic dysfunction and prognosis.Materials And MethodsHolter recordings of patients with multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS) (26 survivors, 10 non-survivors), heart failure (13 low risk, 13 high risk of cardiac arrest), idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) (26 low risk, 11 high risk), after abdominal aorta surgery (AAS) [32 with length of stay in hospital (LOS) >7 days; 62 with LOS < or =7 days] or with schizophrenia (n=20) were assessed and compared to 20 control subjects.ResultsWe found different AIF time scales discriminating risk. AIF measures of heart beat period had predominant prognostic value in heart failure patients, those of vagal communication in MODS and IDC, and those of long-term communication after AAS. Schizophrenic patients were discriminated from controls by vagally mediated communication.ConclusionDifferent time scales of AIF represent specific pathophysiological aspects of altered complex autonomic control (communication) and consequently have predictive implications.

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