The assessment of cardiovascular (and respiratiory) parameters changes provides an information about the control systems involved and about their complex regulation. Methods based on nonlinear dynamics are able to quantify characteristics of the biosignal, that cannot be detected by conventional analysis methods. The sequence plot analysis is one of them. The aim of this paper is to provide basic information about this simple method and its application in the physiological research and in the clinical practice.

        Key words: sequence plot, heart rate variability, nonlinear dynamics