title: Depressive symptoms are related to decreased low-frequency heart rate variability in older adults with decompensated heart failure.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Fundación para la Lucha contra las Enfermedades Neurológicas de la Infancia, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. sguinjoan@fleni.org.ar
authors.forename: Salvador M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Guinjoan
authors.forename: Mariana N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Castro
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Vigo
authors.forename: Hylke
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weidema
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Berbara
authors.forename: Rodolfo D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Fahrer
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Grancelli
authors.forename: Martín
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nogués
authors.forename: Ramón C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Leiguarda
authors.forename: Daniel P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Cardinali
mesh_terms: 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