TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Ziehmann, Christine A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Meyerfeldt, Udo A1 - Schirdewan, Alexander A1 - Voss, Andreas T1 - Short-term forecasting of life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias based on symbolic dynamics and finite-time growth rates N2 - Ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (VT-VF) as fatal cardiac arrhythmias are the main factors triggering sudden cardiac death. The objective of this study is to find early signs of sustained VT-VF in patients with an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). These devices are able to safeguard patients by returning their hearts to a normal rhythm via strong defibrillatory shocks; additionally, they store the 1000 beat-to-beat intervals immediately before the onset of a life-threatening arrhythmia. We study these 1000 beat-to-beat intervals of 17 chronic heart failure ICD patients before the onset of a life-threatening arrhythmia and at a control time, i.e., without a VT-VF event. To characterize these rather short data sets, we calculate heart rate variability parameters from the time and frequency domain, from symbolic dynamics as well as the finite-time growth rates. We find that neither the time nor the frequency domain parameters show significant differences between the VT-VF and the control time series. However, two parameters from symbolic dynamics as well as the finite-time growth rates discriminate significantly both groups. These findings could be of importance in algorithms for next generation ICD's to improve the diagnostics and therapy of VT-VF. Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Voss, Andreas A1 - Malberg, Hagen A1 - Ziehmann, Christine A1 - Voss, Henning U. A1 - Schirdewan, Alexander A1 - Meyerfeldt, Udo A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Nonlinear analysis of complex phenomena in cardiological data N2 - The main intention of this contribution is to discuss different nonlinear approaches to heart rate and blood pressure variability analysis for a better understanding of the cardiovascular regulation. We investigate measures of complexity which are based on symbolic dynamics, renormalised entropy and the finite time growth rates. The dual sequence method to estimate the baroreflex sensitivity and the maximal correlation method to estimate the nonlinear coupling between time series are employed for analysing bivariate data. The latter appears to be a suitable method to estimate the strength of the nonlinear coupling and the coupling direction. Heart rate and blood pressure data from clinical pilot studies and from very large clinical studies are analysed. We demonstrate that parameters from nonlinear dynamics are useful for risk stratification after myocardial infarction, for the prediction of life-threatening cardiac events even in short time series, and for modelling the relationship between heart rate and blood pressure regulation. These findings could be of importance for clinical diagnostics, in algorithms for risk stratification, and for therapeutic and preventive tools of next generation implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Voss, Andreas A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Schirdewan, Alexander A1 - Hnatkova, Katarina A1 - Malik, Marek T1 - Evaluation of renormalised entropy for risk stratification using heart rate variability data N2 - Standard time and frequency parameters of heart rate variability (HRV) describe only linear and periodic behaviour, whereas more complex relationships cannot be recognised. A method that may be capable of assessing more complex properties is the non-linear measure of 'renormalised entropy.' A new concept of the method, RE(AR), has been developed, based on a non-linear renormalisation of autoregressive spectral distributions. To test the hypothesis that renormalised entropy may improve the result of high-risk stratification after myocardial infarction, it is applied to a clinical pilot study (41 subjects) and to prospective data of the St George's Hospital post- infarction database (572 patients). The study shows that the new RE(AR) method is more reproducible and more stable in time than a previously introduced method (p<0.001). Moreover, the results of the study confirm the hypothesis that on average, the survivors have negative values of RE(AR) (-0.11+/-0.18), whereas the non-survivors have positive values (0.03+/-0.22, p<0.01). Further, the study shows that the combination of an HRV triangular index and RE(AR) leads to a better prediction of sudden arrhythmic death than standard measurements of HRV. In summary, the new RE(AR) method is an independent measure in HRV analysis that may be suitable for risk stratification in patients after myocardial infarction. Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Schwarz, Udo A1 - Saparin, Peter A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Symbolic dynamics for medical data analysis N2 - Observational data of natural systems, as measured in medical measurements are typically quite different from those obtained in laboratories. Due to the peculiarities of these data, wellknown characteristics, such as power spectra or fractal dimension, often do not provide a suitable description. To study such data, we present here some measures of complexity, which are basing on symbolic dynamics. Firstly, a motivation for using symbolic dynamics and measures of complexity in data analysis based on the logistic map is given and next, two applications to medical data are shown. We demonstrate that symbolic dynamics is a useful tool for the risk assessment of patients after myocardial infarction as well as for the evaluation of th e architecture of human cancellous bone. Y1 - 2002 UR - http://www.agnld.uni-potsdam.de/~shw/Paper/EUROATTRACTOR2000.ps SN - 3-936142-09-2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Schumann, Agnes A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Schumann, Agnes A1 - Schirdewan, Alexander A1 - Voss, Andreas A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Entropy measures in heart rate variability data Y1 - 2000 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Riedl, Maik A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Is the normal heart rate "chaotic" due to respiration? N2 - The incidence of cardiovascular diseases increases with the growth of the human population and an aging society, leading to very high expenses in the public health system. Therefore, it is challenging to develop sophisticated methods in order to improve medical diagnostics. The question whether the normal heart rate is chaotic or not is an attempt to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of cardiovascular dynamics and therefore a highly controversial topical challenge. In this contribution we demonstrate that linear and nonlinear parameters allow us to separate completely the data sets of the three groups provided for this controversial topic in nonlinear dynamics. The question whether these time series are chaotic or not cannot be answered satisfactorily without investigating the underlying mechanisms leading to them. We give an example of the dominant influence of respiration on heart beat dynamics, which shows that observed fluctuations can be mostly explained by respiratory modulations of heart rate and blood pressure (coefficient of determination: 96%). Therefore, we recommend reformulating the following initial question: "Is the normal heart rate chaotic?" We rather ask the following: " Is the normal heart rate 'chaotic' due to respiration?" Y1 - 2009 UR - http://ojps.aip.org/chaos/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3133128 SN - 1054-1500 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Marwan, Norbert A1 - Meyerfeldt, Udo A1 - Schirdewan, Alexander A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Recurrence quantification analysis to characterise the heart rate variability before the onset of ventricular tachycardia N2 - Ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (VT) as fatal cardiac arrhythmias are the main factors triggering sudden cardiac death. The objective of this recurrence quantification analysis approach is to find early signs of sustained VT in patients with an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). These devices are able to safeguard patients by returning their hearts to a normal rhythm via strong defibrillatory shocks; additionally, they are able to store at least 1000 beat-to-beat intervals immediately before the onset of a life-threatening arrhythmia. We study the Y1 - 2001 UR - http://link.springer.de/link/service/series/0558/bibs/2199/21990295.htm ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Konvicka, Jan A1 - Weidermann, Frank A1 - Nestmann, S. A1 - Neugebauer, R. A1 - Schwarz, U. A1 - Wessel, A. A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Predicting thermal displacements in modular tool systems N2 - In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in compensating thermally induced errors to improve the manufacturing accuracy of modular tool systems. These modular tool systems are interfaces between spindle and workpiece and consist of several complicatedly formed parts. Their thermal behavior is dominated by nonlinearities, delay and hysteresis effects even in tools with simpler geometry and it is difficult to describe it theoretically. Due to the dominant nonlinear nature of this behavior the so far used linear regression between the temperatures and the displacements is insufficient. Therefore, in this study we test the hypothesis whether we can reliably predict such thermal displacements via nonlinear temperature-displacement regression functions. These functions are estimated firstly from learning measurements using the alternating conditional expectation (ACE) algorithm and then tested on independent data sets. First, we analyze data that were generated by a finite element spindle model. We find that our approach is a powerful tool to describe the relation between temperatures and displacements for simulated data. Next, we analyze the temperature-displacement relationship in a silent real experimental setup, where the tool system is thermally forced. Again, the ACE-algorithm is powerful to estimate the deformation with high precision. The corresponding errors obtained by using the nonlinear regression approach are 10-fold lower in comparison to multiple linear regression analysis. Finally, we investigate the thermal behavior of a modular tool system in a working milling machine and get again promising results. The thermally inducedaccuracy using this nonlinear regression analysis. Therefore, this approach seems to be very useful for the development of new modular tool systems. errors can be estimated with 1-2 micrometer Y1 - 2004 SN - 1054-1500 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Kleiner, H. J. A1 - Voss, Andreas A1 - Kurths, Jürgen A1 - Dietz, R. T1 - Nonlinear dynamics in cardiovasscular diseases Y1 - 1997 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wessel, Niels A1 - Aßmus, Joerg A1 - Weidermann, Frank A1 - Konvicka, Jan A1 - Nestmann, S. A1 - Neugebauer, R. A1 - Schwarz, Udo A1 - Kurths, Jürgen T1 - Modeling thermal displacements in modular tool systems N2 - In the last decade, there has been an increasing interest in compensating thermally induced errors to improve the manufacturing accuracy of modular tool systems. These modular tool systems are interfaces between spindle and workpiece and consist of several complicatedly formed parts. Their thermal behavior is dominated by nonlinearities, delay and hysteresis effects even in tools with simpler geometry and it is difficult to describe it theoretically. Due to the dominant nonlinear nature of this behavior the so far used linear regression between the temperatures and the displacements is insufficient. Therefore, in this study we test the hypothesis whether we can reliably predict such thermal displacements via nonlinear temperature-displacement regression functions. These functions are estimated firstly from learning measurements using the alternating conditional expectation (ACE) algorithm and then tested on independent data sets. First, we analyze data that were generated by a finite element spindle model. We find that our approach is a powerful tool to describe the relation between temperatures and displacements for simulated data. Next, we analyze the temperature-displacement relationship in a silent real experimental setup, where the tool system is thermally forced. Again, the ACE-algorithm is powerful to estimate the deformation with high precision. The corresponding errors obtained by using the nonlinear regression approach are 10-fold lower in comparison to multiple linear regression analysis. Finally, we investigate the thermal behavior of a modular tool system in a working milling machine and get again promising results. The thermally induced errors can be estimated with 1-2${mu m}$ accuracy using this nonlinear regression analysis. Therefore, this approach seems to be very useful for the development of new modular tool systems. Y1 - 2004 ER -