Part I: Introduction -- 1. Introducing Complex Cardiovascular Physiology -- Part II: Methods -- 2. Symbolic Dynamics, Poincaré Plot Analysis and Compression Entropy Estimate Complexity in Biological Time Series -- 3. Information Decomposition: A tool to Dissect Cardiovascular and Cardiorespiratory Complexity -- 4. Multiscale Entropy: Recent Advances -- 5. Introduction to Complex Systems Analysis with Wavelets -- 6. Intermittency-Driven Complexity in Signal Processing -- 7. Self-Similarity and Detrended Fluctuation Analysis of Cardiovascular Signals -- 8. Time-varying Cardiovascular Complexity with focus on Entropy and Lyapunov Exponents -- 9. Time-frequency analysis of cardiovascular signals and their dynamic interactions -- Part III: Applications -- 10. Measurements of Cardiovascular Signal Complexity for Advanced Clinical Applications -- 11. Applications of Complexity Analysis in Clinical Heart Failure -- 12. Heart Rate Complexity Associated with Diabetic Cardiac Neuropathy -- 13. Applications of Heartbeat Complexity Analysis to Depression and Bipolar Disorder -- 14. Cardiac Autonomic changes in Epilepsy -- 15. Applications of Nonlinear Methods to Atrial Fibrillation -- 16. Complex and Nonlinear Analysis of Heart Rate Variability in the Assessment of Fetal and Neonatal Wellbeing -- 17. ARFIMA-GARCH Modelling of HRV: Clinical Application in Acute Brain Injury -- 18. Age and Gender Dependency of Complexity Measures of Short-term Heart Rate Time Series -- 19. Complexity and Nonlinearities in Cardiorespiratory Signals in Sleep and Sleep Apnea.

This book reports on the latest advances in complex and nonlinear cardiovascular physiology aimed at obtaining reliable, effective markers for the assessment of heartbeat, respiratory, and blood pressure dynamics. The chapters describe in detail methods that have been previously defined in theoretical physics such as entropy, multifractal spectra, and Lyapunov exponents, contextualized within physiological dynamics of cardiovascular control, including autonomic nervous system activity. Additionally, the book discusses several application scenarios of these methods. The text critically reviews the current state-of-the-art research in the field that has led to the description of dedicated experimental protocols and ad-hoc models of complex physiology. This text is ideal for biomedical engineers, physiologists, and neuroscientists. This book also: Expertly reviews cutting-edge research, such as recent advances in measuring complexity, nonlinearity, and information-theoretic concepts applied to coupled dynamical systems Comprehensively describes applications of analytic technique to clinical scenarios such as heart failure, depression and mental disorders, atrial fibrillation, acute brain lesions, and more Broadens readers' understanding of cardiovascular signals, heart rate complexity, heart rate variability, and nonlinear analysis.