Frontiers in Physiology (Jul 2012)
Linking Inflammation and Cardiorespiratory Variability in Sepsis via Computational Modeling
Abstract
Sepsis leads to multiple organ failure by engaging catastrophic feedback loops in which stressed tissue evokes an inflammatory response and, in turn, inflammation damages tissue. Manifestations of this maladaptive inflammatory response include cardio-respiratory dysfunction that may be reflected in reduced heart rate and ventilatory patterns variabilities. We have developed signal-processing algorithms that quantify non-linear deterministic characteristics of variability in biologic signals. Now, coalescing under the aegis of the NIH Computational Biology Program and the Society for Complexity in Acute Illness, two research teams performed iterative experiments and computational modeling on inflammation and cardio-pulmonary dysfunction in sepsis as well as on neural control of respiration and ventilatory pattern variability. These teams, with additional collaborators, have recently formed a multi-institutional, interdisciplinary consortium, whose goal is to delineate the fundamental interrelationship among the inflammatory response, heart rate and ventilatory pattern variability. Multiscale mathematical modeling and complementary physiological experiments will be combined to gain insight into the physiological control structures
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