title: Short-term testing of heart rate variability in heart-transplanted children: equal to 24-h ECG recordings?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heart rate variability (HRV) is reduced in adults and children after cardiac transplantation. Testing of HRV has been used to assess re-innervation of the cardiac graft; its reliability in ruling out acute graft rejection is still under investigation. This study used a short-term test on HRV in 23 heart and heart-lung transplanted children and adolescents and compared the results with 24-h ECG recordings.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-three subjects (16.3+/-4.2 yr; 10 females) underwent a 10-min HRV test at two occasions and one 24-h ECG. HRV was calculated according to the time domain method (RR interval, standard deviation of RR interval) and the frequency domain method (total power, LF and HF for assessment of sympathovagal modulation of heart rate).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Correlation between the short-term tests and 24-h ECG was high with regard to the frequency domain analysis of HRV. Correlation was less pronounced in the time domain method.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In heart and heart-lung-transplanted children and adolescents, due to reduced overall HRV short-term testing may give as reliable data as 24-h ECG. Therefore, especially when power spectral analysis has to be performed as a longitudinal assessment of re-innervation of the cardiac graft, short-term testing may offer an easily applicable and non-invasive diagnostic tool. Further studies are warranted to investigate whether HRV testing may contribute to rule out acute graft rejection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Cardiology [corrected] Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany. Robert.DallaPozza@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dalla Pozza
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bechtold
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kozlik-Feldmann
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Daebritz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Netz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D016027:Heart Transplantation / Q000502:physiology*; D016041:Heart-Lung Transplantation / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male