Parasympathetic dysfunction in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy assessed by heart rate variability: Comparison between short-term and 24-h measurements

Stellan Mörner, Urban Wiklund, Peter Rask, Bert Ove Olofsson, Elsadig Kazzam, Anders Waldenström

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we evaluate cardiac autonomic function in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) by assessing heart rate variability (HRV), comparing a short-term laboratory method with an ambulatory (24-h) method, in patients with and without beta-blockade. Reduced HRV is a risk factor for adverse events in some cardiac diseases, but is not a proven risk indicator in HCM. Analysis of HRV has been based on either short- or long-term electrocardiographic recordings and previous studies in HCM have shown conflicting results. There is no consensus on which method to prefer, and we evaluate, for the first time, both short- and long-term analyses in patients with HCM. Long- and short-term HRV analyses were performed in 43 patients with HCM. They were divided in two groups, 22 patients on beta-blockade and 21 non-treated patients. As controls, 121 healthy subjects were used. Young patients without beta-blockade showed a reduction in HRV parameters reflecting parasympathetic function, both in the short- and long-term registrations, which was attenuated by beta-blockade. Parasympathetic autonomic regulation was found to be impaired in young patients with HCM. This may be of clinical relevance as abnormal autonomic function might be a substrate for malignant dysrhythmias. The impairment was attenuated by beta-blockade, which might indicate a clinically useful effect. We also show that short- and long-term methods yield similar results, suggesting that a short-term registration might be sufficient to assess HRV in patients with HCM.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)90-99
Number of pages10
JournalClinical Physiology and Functional Imaging
Volume25
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2005

Keywords

  • Autonomic nervous system
  • Cross-sectional study
  • Heart rate variability
  • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physiology
  • Physiology (medical)

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