Analysis of the Doppler signals using largest Lyapunov exponent and correlation dimension in healthy and stenosed internal carotid artery patients

Nonlinear analysis techniques have been applied for many applications on the physiological systems. In this research, the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE) and correlation dimension (CD) calculations were performed to evaluate the chaotic behaviour of blood flow obtained from the healthy and stenosed internal carotid artery (ICA) using noninvasive Doppler ultrasonography technique. The Doppler signals were taken from 30 healthy, 8 mild, 8 moderate and 8 serious degree of stenosis ICA subjects. The LLE calculation was performed by using Wolf algorithm. The Grassberger–Procaccia algorithm was used for CD analysis. The calculated LLE and CD values for stenosed ICA Doppler signals were found as significantly high compared to the values belonging to the healthy subjects. It is found that, the LLEs and CDs of stenosed ICA Doppler signals increase with the increasing of the degree of stenosis. The results show that the LLE and CD can be used for diagnosis of the ICA stenosis and to determine the degree of stenosis.