A System Theoretic Investigation of Cortisol Dysregulation in Fibromyalgia Patients with Chronic Fatigue

Divesh Deepak Pednekar, Md Rafiul Amin, Hamid Fekri Azgomi, Kirstin Aschbacher, Leslie J. Crofford, Rose T. Faghih

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) are complex medical conditions with similar symptoms such as anxiety, fatigue, depression, headaches, muscle aches and joint pain. The etiology of both these syndromes is unknown. The objective of this study is to characterize FMS, both in the presence and in the absence of CFS, by analyzing variations in cortisol secretion patterns, timings, amplitudes, and the number of the underlying pulses as well as infusion and clearance rates. The comparison is performed against matched healthy control subjects. We estimate the hormonal secretory events by deconvolving cortisol data using a two-step coordinate descent approach. The first step implements a sparse recovery approach to infer the amplitudes and the timings of the cortisol secretion events from limited cortisol hormone data. The main advantage of this method is estimating the cortisol secretory events using a system theoretic approach. The second step is to estimate the physiological system parameters (i.e. infusion and clearance rates). This approach has been verified on healthy individuals previously. Our results show that the clearance rate of cortisol by the liver is relatively lower in patients as compared to the matched healthy individuals. This suggests that there is a relatively higher accumulation of serum cortisol in patients when compared to matched healthy subjects.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2019 41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages6896-6901
Number of pages6
Volume2019
ISBN (Electronic)9781538613115
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2019
Event41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019 - Berlin, Germany
Duration: Jul 23 2019Jul 27 2019

Publication series

NameAnnual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference
ISSN (Print)2375-7477

Conference

Conference41st Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2019
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBerlin
Period7/23/197/27/19

Keywords

  • Depression
  • Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Humans
  • Hydrocortisone

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Health Informatics
  • Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
  • Biomedical Engineering

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