Heart rate variability during sleep in healthy term newborns in the early postnatal period.
Normative time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability (HRV) measures were extracted during quiet sleep (QS) and active sleep (AS) periods in 30 healthy babies. All newborn infants studied were less than 12 h old and the sleep state was classified using multi-channel video EEG. Three bands were extracted from the heart rate (HR) spectrum: very low frequency (VLF), 0.01-0.04 Hz; low frequency (LF), 0.04-0.2 Hz, and high frequency (HF), >0.2 Hz. All metrics were averaged across all patients and per sleep state to produce a table of normative values. A noticeable peak corresponding to activity in the RSA band was found in 80% patients during QS and 0% of patients during AS, although some broadband activity was observed. The majority of HRV metrics showed a statistically significant separation between QS and AS. It can be concluded that (i) activity in the RSA band is present during QS in the healthy newborn, in the first 12 h of life, (ii) HRV measures are affected by sleep state and (iii) the averaged HRV metrics reported here could assist the interpretation of HRV data from newborns with neonatal illnesses.
Doyle
O M
OM
Neonatal Brain Research Group, University College Cork, Ireland.
Korotchikova
I
I
Lightbody
G
G
Marnane
W
W
Kerins
D
D
Boylan
G B
GB
D004569:Electroencephalography; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D047929:Term Birth / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors