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Effects of slow and regular breathing exercise on cardiopulmonary coupling and blood pressure

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Abstract

Investigation of the interaction between cardiovascular variables and respiration provides a quantitative and noninvasive approach to assess the autonomic control of cardiovascular function. The aim of this paper is to investigate the changes of cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC), blood pressure (BP) and pulse transit time (PTT) during a stepwise-paced breathing (SPB) procedure (spontaneous breathing followed by paced breathing at 14, 12.5, 11, 9.5, 8 and 7 breaths per minute, 3 min each) and gain insights into the characteristics of slow breathing exercises. RR interval, respiration, BP and PTT are collected during the SPB procedure (48 healthy subjects, 27 ± 6 years). CPC is assessed through investigating both the phase and amplitude dynamics between the respiration-induced components from RR interval and respiration by the approach of ensemble empirical mode decomposition. It was found that even though the phase synchronization and amplitude oscillation of CPC were both enhanced by the SPB procedure, phase coupling does not increase monotonically along with the amplitude oscillation during the whole procedure. Meanwhile, BP was reduced significantly by the SPB procedure (SBP: from 122.0 ± 13.4 to 114.2 ± 14.9 mmHg, p < 0.001, DBP: from 82.2 ± 8.6 to 77.0 ± 9.8 mmHg, p < 0.001, PTT: from 172.8 ± 20.1 to 176.8 ± 19.2 ms, p < 0.001). Our results demonstrate that the SPB procedure can reduce BP and lengthen PTT significantly. Compared with amplitude dynamics, phase dynamics is a different marker for CPC analysis in reflecting cardiorespiratory coherence during slow breathing exercise. Our study provides a methodology to practice slow breathing exercise, including the setting of target breathing rate, change of CPC and the importance of regular breathing. The applications and usability of the study results have also been discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported in part by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number: 61471398), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Grant Number: 3122034), General Logistics Science Foundation (Grant Number: CWS11C108) and National Key Technology Research and Development Program (Grant Numbers: 2013BAI03B04, 2013BAI03B05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Chinese PLA (People’s Liberation Army) General Hospital, 28 Fuxing Rd, Beijing, 10086, China

    Zhengbo Zhang, Buqing Wang, Hao Wu, Xiaoke Chai & Weidong Wang

  2. Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Zhengbo Zhang

  3. Center for Dynamical Biomarkers and Translational Medicine, National Central University, Chungli, Taiwan

    Chung-Kang Peng

  4. Division of Interdisciplinary Medicine and Biotechnology and Margret and H.A. Rey Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics in Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Chung-Kang Peng

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Correspondence to Zhengbo Zhang.

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Zhang, Z., Wang, B., Wu, H. et al. Effects of slow and regular breathing exercise on cardiopulmonary coupling and blood pressure. Med Biol Eng Comput 55, 327–341 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-016-1517-6

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