Depressive symptoms are related to decreased low-frequency heart rate variability in older adults with decompensated heart failure.
OBJECTIVE
Depression has been associated with increased mortality among individuals with heart failure, but the mechanism for this association is unsettled. Depression is often found to result in autonomic dysfunction which, if present in heart failure, might help explain worsened outcomes.


METHODS
This study was a cross-sectional evaluation of the relationship between depressive symptoms and cardiac autonomic function, as assessed by short-term heart rate variability (HRV) analysis in aged patients with acute/decompensated heart failure of coronary origin (CHF). A 21-item Hamilton Depression score and measures of short-term HRV were obtained in 31 inpatients >or=65 years of age, 24-72 h after admission to the coronary care unit with a diagnosis of CHF.


RESULTS
Clinical depression was present in 22.6% of participants. In the sample as a whole, increasing depressive symptoms were associated with decreased low-frequency HRV.


CONCLUSIONS
These results may be important in light of recent indications that decreased low-frequency HRV is a predictor of mortality in patients with heart failure.
Guinjoan
Salvador M
SM
Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. sguinjoan@fleni.org.ar
Castro
Mariana N
MN
Vigo
Daniel E
DE
Weidema
Hylke
H
Berbara
Carlos
C
Fahrer
Rodolfo D
RD
Grancelli
Hugo
H
Nogués
Martín
M
Leiguarda
Ramón C
RC
Cardinali
Daniel P
DP
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D015577:Geriatric Assessment; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D013997:Time Factors