Comparison of heart rate changes with ictal tachycardia seizures in adults and children

Abstract

The study illustrates that age and duration were respectively related to HR differences distinguishing children from adults. There may be an age-related effect of HR changes associated with seizures, with higher HR at different times and HR difference at 10 s before seizure onset as compared to baseline in children, which might explain that children are more likely to predict epileptic seizures than adults, contributing to subclinical seizures and treatment efficiency in refractory patients.

Pre-ictal heart rate changes: A systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Thirty studies, enrolling 1110 people living with epilepsy (39.0% female; 38.2% male; 22.8% not reported) and a total of 2957 seizures, assessed the occurrence of pre-ictal HRI. Eighteen included adults [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29], four children only [29][30][31][32][33], and seven both adults and children [34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The age group was not reported in one study [41].…”

Heart Rate Variability in Children Submitted to Surgery

“…These findings suggest an increase in sympathetic control of the heart or a decrease in parasympathetic control of the heart. Probably, in younger children, surgery influences parasympathetic activity the most whereas, in the older children, it influences mostly the sympathetic activity as found in previous studies that suggest a decrease in the influence of parasympathetic activity that occurs with increasing age [8].…”

“…Healthy children have higher ranges of normal respiratory rate and heart rate when compared to adults, which can interfere with Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) analysis [7,8]. Some authors suggest different ranges for heart rate and respiratory rate cited in international paediatric guidelines [8].…”

“…Some authors suggest different ranges for heart rate and respiratory rate cited in international paediatric guidelines [8]. Since children can breathe at higher rates than 24 cpm we also calculated HFn+ corresponding to frequencies higher than 0.15 Hz (defined later) and can include all high rates of breathing.…”

“…In children, several studies have shown reduced or delayed cardiovagal development in different pathologies such as diabetes mellitus [6][7][8], respiratory distress syndrome of the new-born [9][10][11], brain death [12] and sudden infant death syndrome [13,14]. There is also evidence of low HRV in functional pain conditions, anxiety and emotional disorders, which may indicate HRV as a potent biomarker of general stress and health [15][16][17][18].…”