Katsuhiko Tateoka

Reliability of Heart Rate Variability Analysis by Using Electrocardiogram Recorded Unrestrainedly from an Automobile Steering‐Wheel

Some cases of traffic accidents are assumed to be due to the occurrences of cardiac events during driving, which are thought to be induced by imbalance of autonomic nervous activities. These can be measured by analyzing heart rate variability. Therefore, we developed a new system of steering‐wheel electrocardiogram with a soft‐ware to remove noises. We compared the trends of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve activities measured from the steering‐wheel electrocardiograms with those recorded simultaneously from chest leads. For each parameter of instantaneous heart rate, low‐ or high‐frequency component of heart rate variability in all the cases, the trend from the steering‐wheel electrocardiogram resembled that from the chest‐lead electrocardiogram. In 3 of 7 subjects, the trend of LF/HF showed a strong relationship between the steering‐wheel electrocardiogram and the chest‐lead electrocardiogram. Our system will open doors to a new strategy to keep a driver out of a risk by notifying it while driving.