HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 293/5/E1409    most recent 00365.2007v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Liu, P. Y. Articles by Veldhuis, J. D. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Liu, P. Y. Articles by Veldhuis, J. D.

A noninvasive measure of negative-feedback strength, approximate entropy, unmasks strong diurnal variations in the regularity of LH secretion

¹Endocrine Research Unit, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Medical and Graduate Schools of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota; ²Endocrine Service, Research and Development, Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salem; ³Department of Statistics, University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia; and ⁴Guilford, Connecticut

Submitted 13 June 2007 ; accepted in final form 31 August 2007

The secretion of anterior-pituitary hormones is subject to negative feedback. Whether negative feedback evolves dynamically over 24 h is not known. Conventional experimental paradigms to test this concept may induce artifacts due to nonphysiological feedback. These limitations might be overcome by a noninvasive methodology to quantify negative feedback continuously over 24 h without disrupting the axis. The present study exploits a recently validated model-free regularity statistic, approximate entropy (ApEn), which monitors feedback changes with high sensitivity and specificity (both >90%; Pincus SM, Hartman ML, Roelfsema F, Thorner MO, Veldhuis JD. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 273: E948–E957, 1999). A time-incremented moving window of ApEn was applied to LH time series obtained by intensive (10-min) blood sampling for four consecutive days (577 successive measurements) in each of eight healthy men. Analyses unveiled marked 24-h variations in ApEn with daily maxima (lowest feedback) at 1100 ± 1.7 h (mean ± SE) and minima (highest feedback) at 0430 ± 1.9 h. The mean difference between maximal and minimal 24-h LH ApEn was 0.348 ± 0.018, which differed by P < 0.001 from all three of randomly shuffled versions of the same LH time series, simulated pulsatile data and assay noise. Analyses artificially limited to 24-h rather than 96-h data yielded reproducibility coefficients of 3.7–9.0% for ApEn maxima and minima. In conclusion, a feedback-sensitive regularity statistic unmasks strong and consistent 24-h rhythmicity of the orderliness of unperturbed pituitary-hormone secretion. These outcomes suggest that ApEn may have general utility in probing dynamic mechanisms mediating feedback in other endocrine systems.

luteinizing hormone; follicle-stimulating hormone; prolactin; male