Engineering Approaches to Study Cardiovascular Physiology: Modeling, Estimation, and Signal Processing

With cardiovascular diseases being one of the main causes of death in the world, quantitative modeling, assessment and monitoring of the cardiovascular control system plays a critical role in bringing important breakthroughs to cardiovascular care. Quantification of cardiovascular physiology and its control dynamics from physiological recordings and by use of mathematical models and algorithms has been proved to be of important value in understanding the causes of cardiovascular diseases and assisting the prognostic or diagnostic process. Nowadays, development of new recording technologies (e.g., electrophysiology, imaging, ultrasound, etc) has enabled us to improve and expand acquisition of a wide spectrum of physiological measures related to cardiovascular control. An emerging challenge is to process and interpret such increasing amount of information by using state-of-the-art approaches in systems modeling, estimation and control, and signal processing, which would lead to further insightful scientific findings. In particular, multi-disciplinary engineering-empowered approaches of studying cardiovascular systems would greatly deepen our understanding of cardiovascular functions (e.g., heart rate variability, baroreflex sensitivity) and autonomic control, as it would also improve the knowledge about heart pathology, cardiovascular rehabilitation and therapy. Meanwhile, developing cardiovascular biomedical devices or heart-machine interface for either clinical monitoring or rehabilitation purpose is of greater and greater interest for both scientific advancement and potential medical benefits. This Research Topic will bring together established experts whose areas of research cover a wide range of studies and applications. Contributions include but are not limited to state-of-the-art modeling methodologies, algorithmic development in signal processing and estimation, as well as applications in cardiovascular rehabilitation, and clinical monitoring. The Research Topic will consider both invited reviews and original research.