Evaluation method and system for aging effects of autonomic nervous system based on cross-wavelet transform cardiopulmonary coupling_Journal of Biomedical Engineering

Authors：

LYU Juntong , WANG Yining , SHI Wenbin , TAO Pengyan ,  YE Jianhong

School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, P. R. China;

Corresponding author：

YE Jianhong, Email: chien-hung.yeh@bit.edu.cn

Keywords：

Aging effects; Autonomic nervous system; Cardiopulmonary coupling; Nonstationary signal; Cross-wavelet transform

DOI：

10.7507/1001-5515.202410050

Video：

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Heart rate variability time and frequency indices are widely used in functional assessment for autonomic nervous system (ANS). However, this method merely analyzes the effect of cardiac dynamics, overlooking the effect of cardio-pulmonary interplays. Given this, the present study proposes a novel cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) algorithm based on cross-wavelet transform to quantify cardio-pulmonary interactions, and establish an assessment system for ANS aging effects using wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) and respiratory monitoring devices. To validate the superiority of the proposed method under nonstationary and low signal-to-noise ratio conditions, simulations were first conducted to demonstrate the performance strength of the proposed method to the traditional one. Next, the proposed CPC algorithm was applied to analyze cardiac and respiratory data from both elderly and young populations, revealing that young populations exhibited significantly stronger couplings in the high-frequency band compared with their elderly counterparts. Finally, a CPC assessment system was constructed by integrating wearable devices, and additional recordings from both elderly and young populations were collected by using the system, completing the validation and application of the aging effect assessment algorithm and the wearable system. In conclusion, this study may offers methodological and system support for assessing the aging effects on the ANS.

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1. Kenney M J, Ganta C K. Autonomic nervous system and immune system interactions. Compr Physiol, 2014, 4(3): 1177-1200.
2. Salamon R J, Halbe P, Kasberg W, et al. Parasympathetic and sympathetic axons are bundled in the cardiac ventricles and undergo physiological reinnervation during heart regeneration. iScience, 2023, 26(10): 107709.
3. Hotta H, Uchida S. Aging of the autonomic nervous system and possible improvements in autonomic activity using somatic afferent stimulation. Geriatr Gerontol Int, 2010, 10(S1): S127-S136.
4. Grégoire J M, Gilon C, Carlier S, et al. Autonomic nervous system assessment using heart rate variability. Acta Cardiol, 2023, 78(6): 648-662.
5. Stein P K, Pu Y. Heart rate variability, sleep and sleep disorders. Sleep Med Rev, 2012, 16(1): 47-66.
6. Voss A, Schroeder R, Heitmann A, et al. Short-term heart rate variability-influence of gender and age in healthy subjects. PloS One, 2015, 10(3): e0118308.
7. Corino V D, Matteucci M, Cravello L, et al. Long-term heart rate variability as a predictor of patient age. Comput Methods Programs Biomed, 2006, 82(3): 248-257.
8. Abhishekh H A, Nisarga P, Kisan R, et al. Influence of age and gender on autonomic regulation of heart. J Clin Monit Comput, 2013, 27(3): 259-264.
9. Barbieri R, Matten E C, Alabi A A, et al. A point-process model of human heartbeat intervals: new definitions of heart rate and heart rate variability. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, 2005, 288(1): H424-H435.
10. Lin C, Yeh C H, Wang C Y, et al. Robust fetal heart beat detection via R-peak intervals distribution. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 2019, 66(12): 3310-3319.
11. Wang Y, Shi W, Yeh C H. A novel measure of cardiopulmonary coupling during sleep based on the synchrosqueezing transform algorithm. IEEE J Biomed Health Inform, 2023, 27(4): 1790-1800.
12. Thomas R J, Mietus J E, Peng C K, et al. An electrocardiogram-based technique to assess cardiopulmonary coupling during sleep. Sleep, 2005, 28(9): 1151-1161.
13. Zhang Y, Wu Y, Thomas R J, et al. Cardiopulmonary coupling estimated sleep quality and memory in children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep Med, 2025, 129: 8-13.
14. Liao J, Lu Y, Lu Y, et al. Cardiopulmonary coupling spectrogram as an ambulatory method for assessing sleep disorders in patients with autoimmune encephalitis. Neurology, 2024, 102(10): e209302.
15. Grinsted A, Moore J C, Jevrejeva S. Application of the cross wavelet transform and wavelet coherence to geophysical time series. Nonlinear Process Geophys, 2004, 11(5/6): 561.
16. Wang G, Wu N, Tao Y, et al. The diagnosis of major depressive disorder through wearable fNIRS by using wavelet transform and parallel-CNN feature fusion. IEEE Trans Instrum Meas, 2023, 72: 4011311.
17. Iyengar N, Peng C K, Morin R, et al. Age-related alterations in the fractal scaling of cardiac interbeat interval dynamics. Am J Physiol-Regul Integr Comp Physiol, 1996. 271(4 Pt 2): R1078-R1084.
18. Xu H, Yan W, Lan K, et al. Assessing electrocardiogram and respiratory signal quality of a wearable device (sensecho): semisupervised machine learning-based validation study. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 2021, 9(8): e25415.
19. McSharry P E, Clifford G D, Tarassenko L, et al. A dynamical model for generating synthetic electrocardiogram signals. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 2003, 50(3): 289-294.
20. Eckberg D L. The human respiratory gate. J Physiol, 2003, 548(2): 339-352.
21. de Zambotti M, Trinder J, Silvani A, et al. Dynamic coupling between the central and autonomic nervous systems during sleep: a review. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2018, 90: 84-103.
22. Stratton J R, Levy W C, Caldwell J H, et al. Effects of aging on cardiovascular responses to parasympathetic withdrawal. J Am Coll Cardiol, 2003, 41(11): 2077-2083.
23. Debain A, Loosveldt F A, Knoop V, et al. Frail older adults are more likely to have autonomic dysfunction: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Ageing Res Rev, 2023, 87: 101925.
24. Olivieri F, Biscetti L, Pimpini L, et al. Heart rate variability and autonomic nervous system imbalance: potential biomarkers and detectable hallmarks of aging and inflammaging. Ageing Res Rev, 2024, 101: 102521.
25. El Beheiry H, Mak P. Effects of aging and propofol on the cardiovascular component of the autonomic nervous system. J Clin Anesth, 2013, 25(8): 637-643.

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