Prasanna Kumar Adipudi1, Vivekanand Yelavarti2, Hemasundar Korrapati3
BACKGROUND
Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with an increased risk of
cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The aim of the study was to determine
whether reduced HRV is predictive of angiographic coronary artery disease (CAD).
METHODS
This study was done among 71 clinically stable subjects who underwent elective
coronary angiography for diagnosis or pre-operative evaluation. High frequency
(HF; 0.15 – 0.40 Hz), low frequency (LF; 0.04 – 0.15 Hz), LF / HF ratio, total power
≤ 0.4 Hz were used as the conventional indices of HRV. Analysis of variance
(ANOVA) and chi square test was used to assess the statistical analysis. Statistical
significance analysis was carried out with International Business Machines
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 22.
RESULTS
Out of 71 subjects, only 58 were available for final analysis. 20 subjects had normal
coronary arteries, 19 had single vessel disease and remaining 19 had multi vessel
disease. The HF power of HRV showed decreasing trend as the severity of
angiographic stenosis increased. The median values of LF power for single vessel
disease and multi vessel disease were 148 ms2 and 160 ms2 respectively. The
group without coronary artery disease has a median of 215 ms2 for LF power. The
median HF power was lower in single vessel disease group (133 ms2) compared
to group with normal coronaries (139 ms2) and it was very low in multi vessel
disease (81 ms2) group compared to group with normal coronaries.
CONCLUSIONS
A weak association of HF and LF power of HRV with degree of angiographic
stenosis was observed.
