Relationship between diabetic autonomic dysfunction and heart rate
variability assessed by recurrence plot.
Mestivier, Denis, Nguyen Phong Chau, Xavier Chanudet, Bernard
Bauduceau, and Pierre Larroque.
INSERM U444, Centre de Bio-informatique, Universit[acute]e Paris 7
-Denis Diderot, Paris, France, Service de Pathologie Cardiovasculaire
et HTA and Service de Diab[acute]etologie, H[circumflex]opital
B[acute]egin, Saint-Mand[acute]e, France
APStracts 3:0451H, 1996.
Beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) were measured by
the Finapres system in 44 healthy and 64 diabetic subjects, in the at
rest condition. Autonomic control in diabetic subjects was assessed
by the Ewing test. HR variability was explored by both linear and
nonlinear methods. Linear methods used HR standard deviation, and
power spectrum. The percentage of the spectrum in the low frequencies
(LF%) was used to assess the sympathetic tone of the autonomic
control. Nonlinear method used the "recurrence plot". This
method explored long parallel subsequences in the HR time-series.
These sequences characterises the dependence of the HR dynamics on
initial values. The longest length was denoted lmax. HR standard
deviation was reduced in diabetic subjects, compared to the healthy
subjects (2.80+/-1.17 versus 3.64+/-1.45 b/min, p<0.001). In
diabetic subjects, the HR standard deviation and the LF(%) showed no
correlations with the Ewing score (p>0.10). In contrast, the
lmax index was very strongly correlated to the Ewing score (r=0.60,
p<0.0001). The results suggest that nonlinear methods might be
powerful to explore the autonomic dysfunction in diabetic subjects.
Received 6 May 1996; accepted in final form 23 September 1996.
APS Manuscript Number H398-6.
Article publication pending Am. J. Physiol. (Heart Circ. Physiology).
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 5 November 1996