Chaotic attractor of the left ventricular wall motion in normal heart healthy subject

To analyze the entire left ventricular wall motion, not the decomposed motion, nonlinear mathematical techniques were used to describe graphically time series data for the left ventricular contraction. Time series data of the left ventricular wall motion were recorded by M-mode echocardiography, and embedded into three-dimensional phase space. The largest Lyapunov exponents, a measure of the rate of divergence in phase space, were calculated to detect the sensitive dependence on initial conditions. The reconstructed attractor of the left ventricular contraction showed a lower dimensional strange attractor, and calculation of the Lyapunov exponents indicated sensitivity to initial conditions. These results suggest that time series data of the left ventricular contraction show the characteristics of deterministic chaos. The chaotic system can provide an intelligent and flexible control system. Our results suggest that the circulatory control system, which mediates the cardiac contractility, may be a flexible dynamic compatible with deterministic chaos.