Why the study?
The study sought to investigate the underlying activity state and dynamics characteristic changes of pulse across the three trimesters in healthy pregnant subjects using nonlinear methods.
Nonlinear time series analysis reveals significant quantitative and qualitative changes in pulse dynamics across the three trimesters of pregnancy, providing a theoretical basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine pulse analysis.
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Trimester differences in pulse dynamics are hypothesis-generating for TCM assessment; leaves open prospective validation before any clinical application.
The purpose of this work sought to investigate the underlying activity state and dynamics characteristic changes of pulse in the three trimesters from healthy pregnant subjects by using nonlinear methods. Firstly, 176 healthy young pregnant women of different gestational ages were allocated for the study. The subjects were divided into three trimesters, namely first trimester, second trimester and third trimester, according to gestational age (8–12 weeks; 24–28 weeks; 32–36 weeks). Secondly, methods of nonlinear time series analysis, including phase-space reconstruction, time delay embedding, recurrence plot (RP), recurrence quantification analysis (RQA), Poincaré section and largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) were applied to pulse time series to identify the unique characteristics of the pulse as a dynamical system. Finally, the natural complexity of pulse dynamics has been analyzed and assessed. The results demonstrated that (a) the predictability and regularity (DET: 97.499 vs. 98.471 vs. 98.319, p<0.05), stability (LMAX: 5874.167 vs. 9311.667 vs. 5733.833, p<0.05) and laminar states (LAM: 97.216 vs. 98.224 vs. 97.967, p<0.05) of three trimesters are significantly; (b) the long-term changes of pregnancy pulse in second trimester is significantly higher compared with the first and third trimesters (SD2: 1.0697 vs. 1.0747 vs. 1.0075, p<0.05); (c) the ability of subjects to respond to external stimuli gradually increases (λ: 0.752 vs. 0.768 vs. 0.782, p<0.05). The result of these analyses validates nonlinear characteristics of pulse with different gestation periods, while presence of significant difference has also been noticed. Additionally, the nonlinear methods are used to characterize the pulse changes during pregnancy from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives, which reveal important characteristics of biological signals. This gives us a good theoretical basis for the analysis and applied studies in Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM).
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Li et al. (2022) studied this question.
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