Synchronization index for quantifying nonlinear causal coupling between RR interval and systolic arterial pressure after myocardial infarction

The analysis of nonlinear couplings among cardiovascular variability series can improve the knowledge of the cardioregulatory mechanism and help to understand how it can be affected by pathologies. In this study, the influences of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) on the causal relationships between the heart period and the arterial pressure were investigated by a nonlinear dynamic approach based on the corrected cross-conditional entropy. Whereas the global synchronization index did not differentiate the post-AMI patients from the young and old control groups, the causal indexes evidenced the impairment of the baroreflex control and showed an increase of the mechanical driving of the RR interval on the systolic pressure.