APPLICATION OF HIGUCHIʼS ALGORITHM IN CENTRAL BLOOD PRESSURE PULSE WAVES AND ITS POTENTIAL ASSOCIATION WITH HEMODYNAMIC PARAMETERS IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS

Abstract

Objective: Fractal analysis of blood pressure pulse waves (CBPPW) could be useful as a marker of hypertension development. The application of fractal algorithms in CBPPW provides a mathematical model which could predict its behavior by the determination of fractal dimension (FD) and the correlation coefficient (R2). FD is the space that the object of study occupies and R2 provides information on the state of adaptability of the system, values lower than 0.8 would indicate loss of fractal features. It is proposed to investigate the behavior of CBPPW and analyze its potential correlation with systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), systolic volume (SV) and heart rate (HR). Design and method: 260 CBPPW randomly selected non-treated hypertensive level 1–2 adult patients, 70% males, average age 57.8 ± 14.2 years. Higuchi's algorithm (HA) was applied on systolic peaks (sp) and diastolic valleys (dv) from digitalized images of CBPPW and the hemodynamic variables obtained by ABPM Mobil-O-Graph monitor. Mean (M) and standard deviation (SD) of FD and R2 of the considered variables were obtained. The correlation was made between FD of (sp) and (dv) with hemodynamic variables through Pearson's coefficient. Results: M and SD of FD and R2 are shown in table 1 and FD of sp and dv correlation with hemodynamic variables at table 2.Conclusions: Higuchi's algorithm would reveal loss of adaptation in CBPPW. FD of dv, more than sp, would have greater spatial distribution and interaction with the environment according to the postulates of complex systems, this would explain why hemodynamic parameters better associate their behavior to the DF of the dv with respect to sp. It is demonstrated that variation in CBPPW would reflect the behavior of the stroke volume.