Coupling between Blood Pressure and Subarachnoid Space Width Oscillations during Slow Breathing
Agnieszka Gruszecka,
Magdalena K. Nuckowska,
Monika Waskow,
Jacek Kot,
Pawel J. Winklewski,
Wojciech Guminski,
Andrzej F. Frydrychowski,
Jerzy Wtorek,
Adam Bujnowski,
Piotr Lass,
Tomislav Stankovski,
Marcin Gruszecki
Affiliations
Agnieszka Gruszecka
Department of Radiology Informatics and Statistics, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Magdalena K. Nuckowska
Department of Human Physiology, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Monika Waskow
Institut of Health Sciences, Pomeranian University of Slupsk, 76-200 Slupsk, Poland
Jacek Kot
National Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine, Institute of Maritime and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, 81-347 Gdynia, Poland
Pawel J. Winklewski
Department of Human Physiology, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Wojciech Guminski
Department of Computer Communications, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland
Andrzej F. Frydrychowski
NIRTI SA, 53-676 Wroclaw, Poland
Jerzy Wtorek
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland
Adam Bujnowski
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, 80-233 Gdansk, Poland
Piotr Lass
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
Tomislav Stankovski
Faculty of Medicine, Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia
Marcin Gruszecki
Department of Radiology Informatics and Statistics, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-210 Gdansk, Poland
The precise mechanisms connecting the cardiovascular system and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) are not well understood in detail. This paper investigates the couplings between the cardiac and respiratory components, as extracted from blood pressure (BP) signals and oscillations of the subarachnoid space width (SAS), collected during slow ventilation and ventilation against inspiration resistance. The experiment was performed on a group of 20 healthy volunteers (12 females and 8 males; BMI =22.1±3.2 kg/m2; age 25.3±7.9 years). We analysed the recorded signals with a wavelet transform. For the first time, a method based on dynamical Bayesian inference was used to detect the effective phase connectivity and the underlying coupling functions between the SAS and BP signals. There are several new findings. Slow breathing with or without resistance increases the strength of the coupling between the respiratory and cardiac components of both measured signals. We also observed increases in the strength of the coupling between the respiratory component of the BP and the cardiac component of the SAS and vice versa. Slow breathing synchronises the SAS oscillations, between the brain hemispheres. It also diminishes the similarity of the coupling between all analysed pairs of oscillators, while inspiratory resistance partially reverses this phenomenon. BP–SAS and SAS–BP interactions may reflect changes in the overall biomechanical characteristics of the brain.
