Analysis of heart rate variability demonstrates effects of development on vagal modulation of heart rate in healthy children.
OBJECTIVE
Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has been found to be a useful method of assessing cardiovascular autonomic control, but normal values for standard HRV measures in children have not been established. We analyzed HRV in 60 healthy children aged 3 to 15 years to determine normal values and to assess the effects of development on cardiac autonomic control with the use of ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring.


RESULTS
The high-frequency (HF) component, an index of cardiac autonomic tone, increased significantly with age from 3 to 6 years (p < 0.01) and decreased with age from 6 to 15 years (p < 0.01), and the magnitude of HF correlated significantly with the R-R intervals. Thus the changes in cardiac autonomic tone could be described as a simple equation using age and heart rate.


CONCLUSIONS
We present normal values and changes in the cardiac autonomic system during childhood after HRV analysis, which could lead to a better understanding and treatment of cardiac disease in children.
Goto
M
M
Department of Pediatrics, Nagoya University School of Medicine, Japan.
Nagashima
M
M
Baba
R
R
Nagano
Y
Y
Yokota
M
M
Nishibata
K
K
Tsuji
A
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018670:Monitoring, Ambulatory; D012016:Reference Values