Model-based parameter estimation using cardiovascular response! to orthostatic stress

This paper presents a cardiovascular model that is capable of simulating the short-term (/spl lsim/ 3 min) transient hemodynamic response to gravitational stress and a gradient-based optimization method that allows for the automated estimation of model parameters from simulated or experimental data. We perform a sensitivity analysis of the transient heart rate response to determine which parameters of the model impact the heart rate dynamics significantly. We subsequently include only those parameters in the estimation routine that impact the transient heart rate dynamics substantially. We applied the estimation algorithm to both simulated and real data and showed that restriction to the 20 most important parameters does not impair our ability to match the data.