title: [Estimating cardiovascular age of civil flying personnel by means of heart rate and blood pressure variability analysis].
abstract: Objective. To estimate the cardiovascular age of civil flying personnel by means of heart rate and blood pressure variability analysis and to evaluate its significance in aviation medicine. Method. First, heart rate variability (HRV), blood pressure variability (BPV) and spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) were analyzed among 89 healthy civil flying personnel by using conventional AR spectral analysis and sequence method respectively. Then, principal component analysis was conducted over original and derived variables of HRV and BPV spectral and BRS data. Finally, by the use of multiple regression in which the chronological age acted as the dependent variable and the components significantly related to age were used as the regressors, the equation for estimating the cardiovascular age was established. Result. Only seven principal components can exactly reflect the same information of autonomic regulatory function which was embodied in the 17 variables of HRV and BPV spectral and BRS parameters. Among the seven principal components, the PC2orig, PC4orig and PC2deri were negatively correlated with chronological age (P<0.05), whereas the PC3orig was positively correlated with the chronological age (P<0.01). The cardiovascular age derived from the equation was significantly correlated with the chronological age of the civil flying personnel (r= 0.73, P<0.01). Conclusion. The cardiovascular age estimated by means of a multi-variate analysis of HRV, BPV and BRS can be treated as a comprehensive indicator reflecting the age dependency of autonomic regulatory function of cardiovascular system in healthy civil flying personnel, and its interpretation and significance in application are surely worthy of further and fully dedicated efforts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Aerospace Physiology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an China.
authors.forename: Y G
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.forename: L F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Y H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: X Y
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: J X
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Y B
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Yan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001359:Aviation; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D002320:Cardiovascular Physiological Phenomena; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis