Dataset Information

Heart rate variability during wakefulness as a marker of obstructive sleep apnea severity.

ABSTRACT:

Study objectives

Patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) exhibit heterogeneous heart rate variability (HRV) during wakefulness and sleep. We investigated the influence of OSA severity on HRV parameters during wakefulness in a large international clinical sample.

Methods

1247 subjects (426 without OSA and 821 patients with OSA) were enrolled from the Sleep Apnea Global Interdisciplinary Consortium. HRV parameters were calculated during a 5-minute wakefulness period with spontaneous breathing prior to the sleep study, using time-domain, frequency-domain and nonlinear methods. Differences in HRV were evaluated among groups using analysis of covariance, controlling for relevant covariates.

Results

Patients with OSA showed significantly lower time-domain variations and less complexity of heartbeats compared to individuals without OSA. Those with severe OSA had remarkably reduced HRV compared to all other groups. Compared to non-OSA patients, those with severe OSA had lower HRV based on SDNN (adjusted mean: 37.4 vs. 46.2 ms; p < 0.0001), RMSSD (21.5 vs. 27.9 ms; p < 0.0001), ShanEn (1.83 vs. 2.01; p < 0.0001), and Forbword (36.7 vs. 33.0; p = 0.0001). While no differences were found in frequency-domain measures overall, among obese patients there was a shift to sympathetic dominance in severe OSA, with a higher LF/HF ratio compared to obese non-OSA patients (4.2 vs. 2.7; p = 0.009).

Conclusions

Time-domain and nonlinear HRV measures during wakefulness are associated with OSA severity, with severe patients having remarkably reduced and less complex HRV. Frequency-domain measures show a shift to sympathetic dominance only in obese OSA patients. Thus, HRV during wakefulness could provide additional information about cardiovascular physiology in OSA patients.

Clinical trial information

A Prospective Observational Cohort to Study the Genetics of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Associated Co-Morbidities (German Clinical Trials Register - DKRS, DRKS00003966) https://www.drks.de/drks_web/navigate.do?navigationId=trial.HTML&TRIAL_ID=DRKS00003966.

SUBMITTER: Qin H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8120337 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Heart rate variability (HRV) can reflect the changes in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) that are affected by apnea or hypopnea events among patients with obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). To evaluate the possibility of using HRV to screen for OSAHS, we investigated the relationship between HRV and polysomnography (PSG) diagnostic indices using electrocardiography (ECG) and PSG data from 25 patients with OSAHS and 27 healthy participants. We evaluated the relationship between various PSG diagnostic indices (including the apnea hypopnea index [AHI], micro-arousal index [MI], oxygen desaturation index [ODI]) and heart rate variability (HRV) parameters using Spearman's correlation analysis. Moreover, we used multiple linear regression analyses to construct linear models for the AHI, MI, and ODI. In our analysis, the AHI was significantly associated with relative powers of very low frequency (VLF [%]) (r = 0.641, P = 0.001), relative powers of high frequency (HF [%]) (r = -0.586, P = 0.002), ratio between low frequency and high frequency powers (LF/HF) (r = 0.545, P = 0.049), normalized powers of low frequency (LF [n.u.]) (r = 0.506, P = 0.004), and normalized powers of high frequency (HF [n.u.]) (r = -0.506, P = 0.010) among patients with OSAHS. The MI was significantly related to standard deviation of RR intervals (SDNN) (r = 0.550, P = 0.031), VLF [%] (r = 0.626, P = 0.001), HF [%] (r = -0.632, P = 0.001), LF/HF (r = 0.591, P = 0.011), LF [n.u.] (r = 0.553, P = 0.004), HF [n.u.] (r = -0.553, P = 0.004), and absolute powers of very low frequency (VLF [abs]) (r = 0.525, P = 0.007) among patients with OSAHS. The ODI was significantly correlated with VLF [%] (r = 0.617, P = 0.001), HF [%] (r = -0.574, P = 0.003), LF [n.u.] (r = 0.510, P = 0.012), and HF [n.u.] (r = -0.510, P = 0.012) among patients with OSAHS. The linear models for the PSG diagnostic indices were AHI = -38.357+1.318VLF [%], MI = -13.389+11.297LF/HF+0.266SDNN, and ODI = -55.588+1.715VLF [%]. However, the PSG diagnostic indices were not related to the HRV parameters among healthy participants. Our analysis suggests that HRV parameters are powerful tools to screen for OSAHS patients in place of PSG monitoring.