Assessing Complexity In Physiological Systems Through Biomedical Signals Analysis

Complexity is a ubiquitous phenomenon in physiology that allows living systems to adapt to external perturbations. Fractal structures, self-organization, nonlinearity, interactions at different scales, and interconnections among systems through anatomical and functional networks, may originate complexity. Biomedical signals from physiological systems may carry information about the system complexity useful to identify physiological states, monitor health, and predict pathological events. Therefore, complexity analysis of biomedical signals is a rapidly evolving field aimed at extracting information on the physiological systems. This book consists of 16 contributions from authors with a strong scientific background in biomedical signals analysis. It includes reviews on the state-of-the-art of complexity studies in specific medical applications, new methods to improve complexity quantifiers, and novel complexity analyses in physiological or clinical scenarios. It presents a wide spectrum of methods investigating the entropic properties, multifractal structure, self-organized criticality, and information dynamics of biomedical signals touching upon three physiological areas: the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, the heart-brain interactions. The book is aimed at experienced researchers in signal analysis and presents the latest trends in the complexity methods in physiology and medicine with the hope of inspiring future works advancing this fascinating area of research.

Complexity is a ubiquitous phenomenon in physiology that allows living systems to adapt to external perturbations. Fractal structures, self-organization, nonlinearity, interactions at different scales, and interconnections among systems through anatomical and functional networks, may originate complexity. Biomedical signals from physiological systems may carry information about the system complexity useful to identify physiological states, monitor health, and predict pathological events. Therefore, complexity analysis of biomedical signals is a rapidly evolving field aimed at extracting information on the physiological systems. This book consists of 16 contributions from authors with a strong scientific background in biomedical signals analysis. It includes reviews on the state-of-the-art of complexity studies in specific medical applications, new methods to improve complexity quantifiers, and novel complexity analyses in physiological or clinical scenarios. It presents a wide spectrum of methods investigating the entropic properties, multifractal structure, self-organized criticality, and information dynamics of biomedical signals touching upon three physiological areas: the cardiovascular system, the central nervous system, the heart-brain interactions. The book is aimed at experienced researchers in signal analysis and presents the latest trends in the complexity methods in physiology and medicine with the hope of inspiring future works advancing this fascinating area of research.

Foundations of BioSignal Processing presents the most widely used techniques in signal and system analysis. Specifically, the book is concerned with methods of characterizing signals and systems. Author Charles Lessard provides students and researchers an understanding of the time and frequency domain processes which may be used to evaluate random physiological signals such as brainwave, sleep, respiratory sounds, heart valve sounds, electromyograms, and electro-oculograms.Another aim of the book is to have the students evaluate actual mammalian data without spending most or all of their time writing software programs. Lessard recommends the DADiSP digital signal processing software, which allows students to view process steps in a real-time window with little training. Extensive programming ability is not necessary if an individual wishes to apply basic signal processing principles. However, individuals should have sufficient working knowledge of mathematics through calculus, some physiology, and be familiar with the elements of circuit theory (both loop and node equations for passive and active circuits).

This book grew out of the IEEE-EMBS Summer Schools on Biomedical Signal Processing, which have been held annually since 2002 to provide the participants state-of-the-art knowledge on emerging areas in biomedical engineering. Prominent experts in the areas of biomedical signal processing, biomedical data treatment, medicine, signal processing, system biology, and applied physiology introduce novel techniques and algorithms as well as their clinical or physiological applications. The book provides an overview of a compelling group of advanced biomedical signal processing techniques, such as multisource and multiscale integration of information for physiology and clinical decision; the impact of advanced methods of signal processing in cardiology and neurology; the integration of signal processing methods with a modelling approach; complexity measurement from biomedical signals; higher order analysis in biomedical signals; advanced methods of signal and data processing in genomics and proteomics; and classification and parameter enhancement.

Physiology is a set of processes that maintain homeostasis, and physiological measurement is a means of observing these processes. Systems theory and signal processing offer formal tools for the study of processes and measured quantities. This book shows that systems modeling can be used to develop simulations of physiological systems, which use formal relations between the underlying processes and the observed measurements. The inverse of such relations suggest signal processing tools that can be applied to interpret experimental data. Both signal processing and systems modeling are invaluable in the study of human physiology. Discussing signal processing techniques ranging from filtering and spectrum analysis to wavelet analysis, the book uses graphs and analogies to supplement the mathematics and make the book more accessible to physiologists and more interesting to engineers. Physiological systems modeling helps in both gaining insight and generating methods of analysis. This book shows how numerical computation with graphical display, haptics and multimedia can be used to simulate physiological systems. In this third edition the simulations are more closely related to clinical examination and experimental physiology than in previous editions. Detailed models of nerve and muscle at the cellular and systemic levels, and simplified models of cardiovascular blood flow provide examples for the mathematical methods and computer simulations. Several of the models are sufficiently sophisticated to be of value in understanding real world issues like neuromuscular disease. The book features expanded problem sets and a link to extra downloadable material containing simulation programs that are solutions to the theory developed in the text.

In the past few years Biomedical Engineering has received a great deal of attention as one of the emerging technologies in the last decade and for years to come, as witnessed by the many books, conferences, and their proceedings. Media attention, due to the applications-oriented advances in Biomedical Engineering, has also increased. Much of the excitement comes from the fact that technology is rapidly changing and new technological adventures become available and feasible every day. For many years the physical sciences contributed to medicine in the form of expertise in radiology and slow but steady contributions to other more diverse fields, such as computers in surgery and diagnosis, neurology, cardiology, vision and visual prosthesis, audition and hearing aids, artificial limbs, biomechanics, and biomaterials. The list goes on. It is therefore hard for a person unfamiliar with a subject to separate the substance from the hype. Many of the applications of Biomedical Engineering are rather complex and difficult to understand even by the not so novice in the field. Much of the hardware and software tools available are either too simplistic to be useful or too complicated to be understood and applied. In addition, the lack of a common language between engineers and computer scientists and their counterparts in the medical profession, sometimes becomes a barrier to progress.

This lecture book is intended to be an accessible and comprehensive introduction to random signal processing with an emphasis on the real-world applications of biosignals. Although the material has been written and developed primarily for advanced undergraduate biomedical engineering students it will also be of interest to engineers and interested biomedical professionals of any discipline seeking an introduction to the field. Within education, most biomedical engineering programs are aimed to provide the knowledge required of a graduate student while undergraduate programs are geared toward designing circuits and of evaluating only the cardiac signals. Very few programs teach the processes with which to evaluate brainwave, sleep, respiratory sounds, heart valve sounds, electromyograms, electro-oculograms, or random signals acquired from the body. The primary goal of this lecture book is to help the reader understand the time and frequency domain processes which may be used and to evaluate random physiological signals. A secondary goal is to learn the evaluation of actual mammalian data without spending most the time writing software programs. This publication utilizes “DADiSP”, a digital signal processing software, from the DSP Development Corporation.

Covering the latest cutting-edge techniques in biomedical signal processing while presenting a coherent treatment of various signal processing methods and applications, this second edition of Practical Biomedical Signal Analysis Using MATLAB® also offers practical guidance on which procedures are appropriate for a given task and different types of data. It begins by describing signal analysis techniques—including the newest and most advanced methods in the field—in an easy and accessible way, illustrating them with Live Script demos. MATLAB® routines are listed when available, and freely available software is discussed where appropriate. The book concludes by exploring the applications of the methods to a broad range of biomedical signals while highlighting common problems encountered in practice. These chapters have been updated throughout and include new sections on multiple channel analysis and connectivity measures, phase-amplitude analysis, functional near-infrared spectroscopy, fMRI (BOLD) signals, wearable devices, multimodal signal analysis, and brain-computer interfaces. By providing a unified overview of the field, this book explains how to integrate signal processing techniques in biomedical applications properly and explores how to avoid misinterpretations and pitfalls. It helps readers to choose the appropriate method as well as design their own methods. It will be an excellent guide for graduate students studying biomedical engineering and practicing researchers in the field of biomedical signal analysis. Features: Fully updated throughout with new achievements, technologies, and methods and is supported with over 40 original MATLAB Live Scripts illustrating the discussed techniques, suitable for self-learning or as a supplement to college courses Provides a practical comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches in the context of various applications Applies the methods to a variety of signals, including electric, magnetic, acoustic, and optical Katarzyna J. Blinowska is a Professor emeritus at the University of Warsaw, Poland, where she was director of Graduate Studies in Biomedical Physics and head of the Department of Biomedical Physics. Currently, she is employed at the Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering of the Polish Academy of Sciences. She has been at the forefront in developing new advanced time-series methods for research and clinical applications. Jarosław Żygierewicz is a Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland. His research focuses on developing methods for analyzing EEG and MEG signals, brain-computer interfaces, and applications of machine learning in signal processing and classification.