Comparison of Indices Derived from Poincaré Maps on Electrocardiograms and Seismocardiograms

Heart rate variability (HRV) is the physiological variation of time between heart beats caused by the activity of autonomic nervous system. Heart rate variability analysis has found various applications in the diagnosis and treatment of different clinical and functional conditions. One of the prominent approaches in HRV analysis are Poincaré map. HRV analysis is traditionally performed on electrocardiograms (ECG) although seismocardiograms can also be used. In this study we compare indices derived from Poincaré maps on electrocardiograms and seismocardiograms found in CEBS database available on PhysioNet.org. Poincaré map is a non-linear method of HRV analysis which uses diagrams in which inter-beat intervals are plotted as a function of previous inter-beat intervals. We found that there are no significant differences of indices of Poincaré maps calculated on electrocardiograms and seismocardiograms, which indicates the reliability of seismocardiogram as a source signal in non-linear HRV analysis using Poincaré maps.