Influence of the loss of time-constants repertoire in pathologic heartbeat dynamics

We present a fractal analysis of diurnal heart interbeat time series from healthy young subjects and patients with congestive heart failure. We describe some differences between these groups by means of the calculation of some scale-invariant exponents. A previous simple model to reproduce the observed differences is briefly described (Phys. Rev. E 67 (2003) 052901). The model is based in first-order autoregressive processes and consists in the combination of time constants. We suggest that some changes occurring with disease could be related to the participation or absence of time constants. Finally, we also present a multifractal analysis of simulated sequences and their comparison with real data.