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Article

Nonlinear fractal dynamics of human colonic pressure activity based upon the box-counting method

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Pages 660-668
Received 28 Feb 2011
Accepted 10 Oct 2011
Published online: 31 Jan 2012
 

The computational fractal dimension of human colonic pressure activity acquired by a telemetric capsule robot under normal physiological conditions was studied using the box-counting method. The fractal dimension is a numeric value that quantifies to measure how rough the signal is from nonlinear dynamics, rather than its amplitude or other linear statistical features. The colonic pressure activities from the healthy subject during three typical periods were analysed. The results showed that the activity might be fractal with a non-integer fractal dimension after it being integrated over time using the cumsum method, which was never revealed before. Moreover, the activity (after it being integrated) acquired soon after wakening up was the roughest (also the most complex one) with the largest fractal dimension, closely followed by that acquired during sleep with that acquired long time after awakening up (in the daytime) ranking third with the smallest fractal dimension. Fractal estimation might provide a new method to learn the nonlinear dynamics of human gastrointestinal pressure recordings.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30900320, No. 61001164) and Innovation Program of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 10YZ93).

 

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