Heart Rate Variability in Pulmonary Sarcoidosis: a time and frequency perspective
Keywords:
Sarcoidosis; HRV; Steroids; Autonomic functionAbstract
Background and aim: The association between sarcoidosis and autonomic dysfunction is demonstrated but poorly known. Heart rate variability (HRV) studies can provide a simple, non-invasive analysis of sympathetic and vagal tone in sarcoidosis. To date, the burden of steroid treatment on HRV has not been investigated. We aim to compare the HRV in sarcoidosis with general population and to explorate the burden of steroid treatment in HRV.
Methods: Prospective analysis of 30 patients enrolled in Sarcoidosis Clinic of Policlinico Gemelli Hospital compared to 72 healthy control subjects. Continuous EKG recording over 24 hours has been performed and HRV was assessed using time and frequency domain analysis. Results were evaluated using a propensity score matching 1:1.
Results: Patients affected by sarcoidosis presented a mean age of 59.7±10.1 y and female gender predominance (n=20, 71.4%) %) while the control group was 54.6±16.0 y. The HRV analysis outlined a remarkable difference when both time / frequency domain were compared to the general, healthy population (ΔSDNN: 89.4±6.7 p=0.0001; ΔrMSSD: 5.7±2.6 p=0.03; ΔLF: 497.0±142.3 p=0.0007; ΔHF: 325.0±159.5 p=0.0442) suggesting a significant impact of sarcoidosis in autonomic activation. Remarkably the lung function tests and scadding stage did not show any relationship with the HRV (p=NS). At the same time, steroid treatment of ≥10 mg/day of prednisone for the previous 3 months was associated with a significant reduction of HRV in time (SDNN: Δ17.2±6.9, p=0.020) and frequency domain (LF: Δ355.2±125.7, p=0.009 and HF: Δ116.2±65.2, p=0.087). Lastly, the propensity score matching did confirm the previous results regarding time/frequency domain analysis.
Conclusions: HRV is an effective tool for the autonomic evaluation in patients affected by sarcoidosis. The time (r-MSSD, SDNN, pNN50%) and frequency domain (HF/LF mean) analysis in sarcoidosis suggested that autonomic dysfunction is not related to the lung function or scadding stage though steroid treatment may impact.
References
Sreeja, C. e. (2022). Sarcoidosis - A review article. Journal of oral and maxillofacial pathology : JOMFP, 242-253
Shah, A. S. (2019). Heart rate variability and cardiac autonomic dysfunction: Prevalence, risk factors, and relationship to arterial stiffness in the Treatment Options for type 2 diabetes in Adolescents and youth (TODAY) study. Diabetes Care
Goldberger, A. L., Amaral, L. A. N., Glass, L., Hausdorff, J. M., Ivanov, P. Ch., Mark, R. G., Mietus, J. E., Moody, G. B., Peng, C.-K., & Stanley, H. E. (2000). PhysioBank, PhysioToolkit, and PhysioNet. In Circulation (Vol. 101, Issue 23). Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health). https://doi.org/10.1161/01.cir.101.23.e215
The Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, T. A. L. (1990). The MIT-BIH Normal Sinus Rhythm Database [Dataset]. physionet.org. https://doi.org/10.13026/C2NK5R
Stein, P., & Goldsmith, R. (2003). Normal Sinus Rhythm RR Interval Database [Dataset]. physionet.org. https://doi.org/10.13026/C2S881
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Transfer of Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Parts of Published Papers.
Authors retain the copyright for their published work. No formal permission will be required to reproduce parts (tables or illustrations) of published papers, provided the source is quoted appropriately and reproduction has no commercial intent. Reproductions with commercial intent will require written permission and payment of royalties.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
