Multifractality and scale invariance in human heartbeat dynamics

Human heart rate is known to display complex fluctuations. Evidence of multifractality in heart rate fluctuations in healthy state has been reported [ Ivanov et al. Nature (London) 399 461 (1999)]. This multifractal character could be manifested as the dependence of the probability density functions (PDFs) of the interbeat interval increments, which are the differences in two interbeat intervals that are separated by n beats, on n. On the other hand, “scale invariance in the PDFs of detrended healthy human heart rate increments” was recently reported [ Kiyono et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 178103 (2004)]. In this paper, we clarify that the scale invariance reported is actually exhibited by the PDFs of the increments of the “detrended” integrated healthy interbeat interval and should, therefore, be more accurately referred as the scale invariance or n independence of the PDFs of the sum of n detrended interbeat intervals. Indeed, we demonstrate explicitly that the PDFs of detrended healthy interbeat interval increments are scale or n dependent in accord with its multifractal character. Our work also establishes that this n independence of the PDFs of the sum of n detrended interbeat intervals is a general feature of human heartbeat dynamics, shared by heart rate fluctuations in both healthy and pathological states.