AutoDecon: a robust numerical method for the quantification of pulsatile events.

This work presents a new approach to the analysis of aperiodic pulsatile heteroscedastic time-series data, specifically hormone pulsatility. We have utilized growth hormone (GH) concentration time-series data as an example for the utilization of this new algorithm. While many previously published approaches used for the analysis of GH pulsatility are both subjective and cumbersome to use, AutoDecon is a nonsubjective, standardized, and completely automated algorithm. We have employed computer simulations to evaluate the true-positive, the false-positive, the false-negative, and the sensitivity percentages of several of the routinely employed algorithms when applied to GH concentration time-series data. Based on these simulations, it was concluded that this new algorithm provides a substantial improvement over the previous methods. This novel method has many direct applications in addition to hormone pulsatility, for example, to time-domain fluorescence lifetime measurements, as the mathematical forms that describe these experimental systems are both convolution integrals.