title: [Reproducibility of heart rate variability measurements in repeated 24-hour long-term ECG registration].
abstract: Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered to indicate cardiac autonomic reflex activity. The reproducibility of HRV determinations from repeated Holter recordings has not been vigorously evaluated. This represents, however, an important question since HRV determinations are increasingly used to examine disease-related changes in the autonomic tone or the effects of therapeutic interventions. Thus, the present study examined the reproducibility of 4 commonly used time-domain parameters (SDNN, SDANN, rMSSD, pNN50) and the spectral components of HRV in 17 healthy volunteers and in patients with coronary artery disease (n = 9) or hypertensive heart disease (n = 9). In all subjects, 2 Holter recordings were obtained 7 days apart. In both, healthy volunteers and in patients, overall reproducibility of HRV parameters was good exhibiting correlation coefficients between 0.60 and 0.98. However, in individual subjects particularly in those without heart disease a higher degree of variability of HRV measurements was observed. In those patients with markedly reduced HRV, reproducibility was best. It is concluded that repeated HRV determinations may be utilized to examine the effects of underlying disease progress or of therapeutic interventions on cardiac autonomic tone.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Universitätsklinik III, Kardiologie, Freiburg.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Klingenheben
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zabel
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Just
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hohnloser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004110:Diltiazem / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000187:drug effects / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009543:Nifedipine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors; D004110:Diltiazem; D009543:Nifedipine
vernacular_title: Reproduzierbarkeit von Herzfrequenzvariabilitäts-Messungen in wiederholten 24-Stunden-Langzeit-EKG-Aufzeichnungen.