University Journal of Pre and Paraclinical Sciences
The relationship between short-term HRV indices and heart rate response to Deep BreathingTest in normal subjects
Abstract
Normally, at rest, respiration is associated
with a sinus arrhythmia due to modulation
of the cardiac parasympathetic supply.
Deep Breathing Test (DBT) thus assesses
the parasympathetic arm of nervous system
control of the cardiovascular function.
Parameters computed from the heart rate
responses to the DBT, namely I-EHR and
the EI ratio quantifies the extent of sinus
arrhythmia and parasympathetic activity.
The short-term Heart Rate Variability
(HRV) indices that reflect cardiac parasympathetic
activity are pNN50, RMSSD, and
HF power. The indices that mirror the combined
modulation of sympathetic and parasympathetic
cardiac supply are SDNN and
Total power (sum of LF and HF powers).
We postulated that as the DBT was done
at a low frequency of breathing (0.1 Hz),
changes in the cardiac sympathetic activity
would also contribute to the heart rate responses
of DBT. The current study thus
explored whether there was any correlation
between the DBT values of
I-EHR and EI ratio and the HRV indices
reflecting combined activity of the cardiac
sympathetic and parasympathetic innervation,
namely SDNN and Total power. We
also determined whether there was any
correlation between the same DBT values
and HRV indices reflecting purely cardiac
parasympathetic fluctuations, namely
RMSSD, pNN50 and HF power. Towards
this, we did the DBT in 22 healthy male
volunteers (aged 25-35 years) and their
resting supine ECG and respiration was
recorded over 5 minutes for short-term
HRV analysis to obtain the HRV indices.
Spearmans correlation test was applied
between the DBT results (I-EHR and EI
ratio) and the HRV indices. The results of
our study showed no correlation between
the DBT parameters and the HRV indices.
In conclusion, our study shows that
among the subjects studied, the DBT
value of a person did not predict the persons
HRV indices. Thus, we found no relationship
between the inherent spontaneous
cardiac autonomic activity and the
Deep Breathing Test values in our subjects.
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