Gender-Related Differences in Time and Spectral Entropy Rate Measures of Cardiovascular Variability

In this work, we investigate gender-related differences in the autonomic regulation of the cardiovascular system using information-theoretic measures of entropy rate (ER) and mutual information rate (MIR) computed in the time- and frequency domains. Analyses were carried out on heart period, systolic and diastolic blood pressure time series extracted on 276 young healthy subjects in the resting supine condition. The results of spectral ER and MIR measures evidenced in females a reduced dynamical cardiovascular complexity and decreased pairwise coupling within the Low Frequency band that can be related to the lower sympathetic activity if compared to males.