Altered heart rate variability in severe sleep apnea syndrome

Abstract

Heart rate variability (HRV) was studied in 19 patients with severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), 17 with mild OSAS and 19 control subjects. A very low frequency (VLF) component during sleep in frequency-domain analysis was significantly higher in patients with severe OSAS, but not in patients with mild OSAS, compared with controls. It suggests that VLF is useful for the screening of severe OSAS, but not for mild OSAS. In addition, a low frequency (LF) component during sleep was also elevated in patients with severe OSAS. Further investigation is needed to understand the underlying causes of the LF elevation.

Heart rate variability in adults with obstructive sleep apnea: a systematic review

“…The earliest study was from 1998 14 and the latest, 2017 15 . Those studies were from several different countries, such as Japan 14 , 16 , Sweden 17 , USA 18 , Greece 19 , Italy 20 , Turkey 21 , France 22 , Korea 23 , 24 , Spain 25 and China 15 . Six of them had controlled for additional factors such as medications intake and comorbidities.…”

The Effect of Aging and Severity of Sleep Apnea on Heart Rate Variability Indices in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

“…Patients with more severe OSAS exhibited a higher low frequency/high frequency (LF/HF) ratio, which reflects the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems 13,14. Another study suggested that the marked rise in very low frequency (VLF) signal during sleep in severe OSAS patients, in contrast to the lack of such a change in mild OSAS patients, may represent a tool for determining the severity of OSAS 15. Narkiewicz et al reported that patients with moderate to severe OSAS had shorter RR intervals (defined as the time between two consecutive R waves in the electrocardiogram) and increased sympathetic burst frequency compared with control subjects 16.…”

Cardiac autonomic function and cardiac arrhythmias in patients with obstructive sleep apnea

“…Wakai ve ark. [21] ciddi TUAS'li 19, orta TUAS'li 17 hastada ve 19 sağlıklı bireyde, uyku sırasında KHD'yi frekans temelli analiz ile değerlendirmişler, VLF bileşeninin ciddi TUAS olan olgularda yüksek olduğunu saptamışlardır. Hafif TUAS olan olgular ile sağlıklı kontrol grubu arasında bir farklılık gözlenmezken, ciddi TUAS olan olgularda LF bileşenin de diğerlerine göre yüksek olduğunu kaydetmişlerdir.…”

“…Anılan çalışmada, HF ve ULF için ise gruplar arasında belirgin bir farklılık ortaya çıkmamıştır. [21] Bulgularımız da bu çalışmanın bildirdiği sonuçlarla uyumludur.…”

“…Bazı çalışmalarda AHİ ≥20 olan hastalara TUAS tanısı konmuş ve bu çalışmalarda TUAS'li hastalarda LF'de artış ve HF'de azalma saptanmıştır. [21,22] Bu veriler de AHİ derecesi ile LF'deki artış arasında ilişki olabileceğini düşündürmektedir. Park ve ark.…”