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It is unclear whether physiological recordings containing high numbers of ectopic heartbeats can be used to measure the cerebral autoregulation (CA) of blood flow. This study evaluated the utility of such data for assessing dynamic CA capacity. Physiological recordings of cerebral blood flow velocity, heart rate, end-tidal CO2 and beat-to-beat blood pressure from acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) patients (n = 46) containing ectopic heartbeats of varying number (0.2 to 25 occurrences per minute) were analysed. Dynamic CA was determined using the autoregulation index (ARI) and the normalised mean square error (NMSE) was used to evaluate the fitting of the step response between BP and CBFV to Tiecks' model. We fitted linear mixed models on the CA variables incorporating ectopic burden, age, sex and hemisphere as predictor variables. Ectopic activity demonstrated an association with mean coherence (p = 0.006) but not with ARI (p = 0.162), impaired CA based on dichotomised ARI (p = 0.859) or NMSE (p = 0.671). Dynamic CA could be reliably assessed in AIS patients using physiological recordings with high rates of cardiac ectopic activity. This provides supportive data for future studies evaluating CA capability in AIS patients, with the potential to develop more individualised treatment strategies. Graphical Abstract.

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/s11517-019-02064-0

Type

Journal article

Journal

Medical & biological engineering & computing

Publication Date

12/2019

Volume

57

Pages

2731 - 2739

Addresses

Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Cerebral Haemodynamics in Ageing and Stroke Medicine Research Group, University of Leicester, Room 225, Level 2, Robert Kilpatrick Clinical Sciences Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, LE2 7LX, UK.

Keywords

Heart, Brain, Humans, Brain Ischemia, Blood Flow Velocity, Homeostasis, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Middle Aged, Female, Male, Hemodynamics, Stroke