Heart rhythm complexity impairment in end stage renal disease patients receiving haemodialysis

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the most common complications of end stage renal disease (ESRD) patients receiving haemodialysis (HD). A better understanding of the relationship between CVD and HD is important to improve life expectancy and reduce the mortality risk of ESRD patients receiving HD. Heart rate variability (HRV), also known as variations in heart rate, is a useful method to measure the autonomic nervous system dys-regulation with 24-h electrocardiogram (ECG). The variables of heart rhythm complexity could be acquired with multi-scale entropy analysis (MSE). We enrolled 31 ESRD patients receiving HD in this study. MSE was used as non-linear heart rate variability (HRV) in our study. MSE area was negative correlated with age. MSE area 10-20 was positive correlated with Kt/V, albumin (ALB) and hemoglobin (Hb). Furthermore, we found that the MSE area before HD was higher than the MSE area after HD. We also found that increased age was a deleterious factor of HRV in ESRD patients receiving HD. Kt/V, ALB, and Hb were beneficial factors of HRV in ESRD patients receiving HD. HD seemed to be a harmful factor of HRV in ESRD patients.