Abstract

Many hormones are secreted in pulses. The pulsatile relationship between hormones regulates many biological processes. To understand endocrine system regulation, time series of hormone concentrations are collected. The goal is to characterize pulsatile patterns and associations between hormones. Currently each hormone on each subject is fitted univariately. This leads to estimates of the number of pulses and estimates of the amount of hormone secreted; however, when the signal-to-noise ratio is small, pulse detection and parameter estimation remains di±cult with existing approaches. In this paper, we present a bivariate deconvolution model of pulsatile hormone data focusing on incorporating pulsatile associations. Through simulation, we exhibit that using the underlying pulsatile association between two hormones improves the estimation of the number of pulses and the other parameters de¯ning each hormone. We develop the one-to-one, driver-response case and show how birth-death MCMC can be used for estimation. We exhibit these features through a simulation study and on the relationship between luteinizing and follicle stimulating hormones.

Disciplines

Biostatistics

Included in

Biostatistics Commons

Share

COinS