Purpose: A temporal reduction in the cardiovascular autonomic responses predisposes patients to cardiovascular instability after a viral infection and therefore increases the risk of associated complications. These findings have not been replicated in a bacterial infection. This pilot study will explore the prevalence of cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction (CAD) in hospitalized patients with a bacterial infection. Methods: A longitudinal observational pilot study was conducted. Fifty participants were included: 13 and 37 participants in the infection group and healthy group, respectively. Recruitment and data collection were carried out during a two-year period. Participants were followed up for 6 weeks: all participants’ cardiovascular function was assessed at baseline (week 1) and reassessed subsequently at week 6 so that the progression of the autonomic function could be evaluated over that period of time. The collected data were thereafter analyzed using STATA/SE version 16.1 (StataCorp). The Fisher Exact test, McNemar exact test, Mann–Whitney test and Wilcoxon test were used for data analysis. Results: 32.4% of the participants in the healthy group were males (n = 12) and 67.6% were females (n = 25). Participants’ age ranged from 33 years old to 76 years old with the majority being 40–60 years of age (62.1%) (Mean age 52.4 SD = 11.4). Heart rate variability (HRV) in response to Valsalva Maneuver, metronome breathing, standing and sustained handgrip in the infection group was lower than in the healthy group throughout the weeks. Moreover, both the HRV in response to metronome breathing and standing up showed a statistically significant difference when the mean values were compared between both groups in week 1 (p = 0.03 and p = 0.013). The prevalence of CAD was significantly higher in the infection group compared to healthy volunteers, both at the beginning of the study (p = 0.018) and at the end of follow up (p = 0.057), when all patients had been discharged. Conclusions: CAD, as assessed by the HRV, is a common finding during the recovery period of a bacterial infection, even after 6 weeks post-hospital admission. This may increase the risk of complications and cardiovascular instability. It may therefore be of value to conduct a wider scale study to further evaluate this aspect so recommendations can be made for the cardiovascular autonomic assessment of patients while they are recovering from a bacterial infectious process.
