Steven Vandeput

Influence of Mental Stress on Heart Rate and Heart Rate Variability

Stress is a huge problem in today’s society. Being able to measure stress, therefore, may help to address this problem. Although stress has a psychological origin, it affects several physiological processes in the human body: increased muscle tension in the neck, change in concentration of several hormones and a change in heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). The brain innervates the heart by means of stimuli via the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), which is divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic branches. The sympathetic activity leads to an increase in HR (e.g. during sports exercise), while parasympathetic activity induces a lower HR (e.g. during sleep). The two circuits are constantly interacting and this interaction is reflected in HRV. HRV, therefore, provides a measure to express the activity of the ANS, and may consequently provide a measure for stress. We therefore explored measures of HR and HRV with an imposed stressful situation. We recorded changes in HR and HRV in a group of 28 subjects at rest, and with a mental stressor. The results suggest that HR and HRV change with a mental task. HR and HRV recordings may have the potential, therefore, to measure stress levels and guide preventive measures to reduce stress related illnesses.

Nonlinear heart rate dynamics : circadian profile and influence of age and gender

Heart rate variability (HRV) is used as a marker of autonomic modulation of heart rate. Nonlinear HRV parameters providing information about the scaling behaviour or the complexity of the cardiac system were included. In addition, the chaotic behaviour was quantified by means of the recently developed numerical noise titration technique. 24h Holter recordings of a large healthy population (N=276, 141 males, 18-71 years of age) were available. The goal was to investigate the influence of gender, age and day-night variation on these nonlinear HRV parameters. Numerical titration yielded similar information as other nonlinear HRV parameters do. However, it does not require long and cleaned data and therefore applicable on short (5min) noisy time series. A higher nonlinear behaviour was observed during the night (NLdr; day: 50.8±19.6%, night: 59.1±19.5%; P<0.001) while nonlinear heart rate fluctuations decline with increasing age (NLdr; Pearson correlation coefficient r between -0.260 and -0.319 dependent on gender and day or night, all P<0.01). A clear circadian profile could be found for almost every parameter, showing in particular which changes occur during the transition phases of waking up and going to sleep. Our results support the involvement of the autonomic nervous system in the generation of nonlinear and complex heart rate dynamics.

Autonomic effects of refractory epilepsy on heart rate variability in children: influence of intermittent vagus nerve stimulation.

Aim  Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is a therapeutic option for individuals with refractory epilepsy. Individuals with refractory epilepsy are prone to dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Reduced heart rate variability is a marker of dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. Our goal was to study heart rate variability in children with refractory epilepsy and the influence of VNS on this parameter.

Time-frequency heart rate variability characteristics of young adults during physical, mental and combined stress in laboratory environment

The goal of this study was to evaluate the changes in heart rate variability (HRV) parameters due to a specific physical, mental or combined load. More specifically, the difference in effect between mental load and physical activity is studied. In addition, the effect of the combined physical and mental demand on the HRV parameters was examined and compared with the changes during the single task. In a laboratory environment, 28 subjects went through a protocol with different types of load (physical and/or mental), each followed by a period of rest. Continuous wavelet transformation was applied to create time series of instantaneous power and frequency in specified frequency bands (LF and HF). HF could distinguish the active conditions from the rest condition, meaning that HRV is sensitive to any change in mental or physical state. Differences in HRV parameters were observed between physical, mental and the combined load. In conclusion, we were able to distinguish between rest, physical and mental condition by combining different HRV characteristics. The addition of a mental load to a physical task had an extra effect on the HRV characteristics.

Complexity of cardiovascular regulation in small animals

Oscillations of heart rate and blood pressure are related to the activity of the underlying control mechanism. They have been investigated mostly with linear methods in the time and frequency domains. Also, in recent years, many different nonlinear analysis methods have been applied for the evaluation of cardiovascular variability. This review presents the most commonly used nonlinear methods. Physiological understanding is obtained from various results from small animals.

Heart Rate Variability during REM and non-REM Sleep in Preterm Neonates with and without Abnormal Cardiorespiratory Events

AIM Analyse heart rate variability (HRV) of preterm neonates undergoing a polysomnography in relation to the occurrence of abnormal cardiorespiratory events on one hand and the type of sleep states on the other hand. METHODS To quantify nonlinear HRV, the numerical noise titration technique is used, adapted to neonatal heart rate data. HRV is calculated for 30 preterm neonates with mean post-conceptional age of 36.4weeks, divided into three groups according to the occurrence of abnormal events during the polysomnographies and the eventual home monitoring. RESULTS Periods of non-REM sleep have lower noise limit values and can be distinguished significantly from periods of REM sleep and from the total recording period. The presence of abnormal events does not influence this finding. Significant differences between groups are only found during non-REM segments by means of the noise limit value computed via numerical noise titration while the linear HRV parameters were not able to discriminate. CONCLUSION ECG measurement of a relatively short non-REM sleep period without specific abnormal events is sufficient to define a mature cardiorespiratory pattern in preterm infants.

Cardiac autonomic dysfunction in West syndrome

BACKGROUND West syndrome is an age-dependent epileptic encephalopathy. Autonomic changes are increasingly being recognized in patients with epilepsy: cardiac autonomic function is mediated by sympathetic and parasympathetic efferent activity to the heart and can provide information on the functional state of the autonomic nervous system. The goal of the study is to evaluate the effect of an early epileptic encephalopathy on the autonomic nervous system by measuring heart rate variability. METHODS Cardiac autonomic function was evaluated in 13 patients with West syndrome by measuring heart rate variability during 5 min epochs of ECG in wake, stage 2 and slow wave sleep. In 5 patients who developed subsequently another type of epilepsy, a second evaluation was performed after 3 years of follow-up. RESULTS Results showed a lower heart rate in stage 2 sleep in patients with West syndrome. Spectral components did not show significant differences compared to age matched controls at the moment of presentation. After follow-up of 3 years we were able to demonstrate higher low frequency (LF), lower high frequency (HF) and a higher LF/HF ratio during slow wave sleep. CONCLUSION This study shows a lower heart rate in patients presenting with West syndrome, already at the onset of the syndrome and before ACTH treatment. The epileptic encephalopathy is not sufficient to alter spectral components of heart rate at the moment of presentation. However, already after 3 years of epilepsy, chronic autonomic changes appear.

Nonlinear heart rate variability in a healthy population: Influence of age

Heart rate variability (HRV) measurements are used as markers of autonomic modulation of heart rate. Numerical noise titration was applied to a large healthy population to examine the influence of age. Increasing age was associated with decreasing nonlinear behaviour and this age dependency was especially prominent during daytime and was also more pronounced in the female population.

Cardiovascular autonomic adaptation in lunar and martian gravity during parabolic flight

PurposeWeightlessness has a well-known effect on the autonomic control of the cardiovascular system. With future missions to Mars in mind, it is important to know what the effect of partial gravity is on the human body. We aim to study the autonomic response of the cardiovascular system to partial gravity levels, as present on the Moon and on Mars, during parabolic flight.MethodsECG and blood pressure were continuously recorded during parabolic flight. A temporal analysis of blood pressure and heart rate to changing gravity was conducted to study the dynamic response. In addition, cardiovascular autonomic control was quantified by means of heart rate (HR) and blood pressure (BP) variability measures.ResultsZero and lunar gravity presented a biphasic cardiovascular response, while a triphasic response was noted during martian gravity. Heart rate and blood pressure are positively correlated with gravity, while the general variability of HR and BP, as well as vagal indices showed negative correlations with increasing gravity. However, the increase in vagal modulation during weightlessness is not in proportion when compared to the increase during partial gravity.ConclusionsCorrelations were found between the gravity level and modulations in the autonomic nervous system during parabolic flight. Nevertheless, with future Mars missions in mind, more studies are needed to use these findings to develop appropriate countermeasures.

Adaptation of autonomic heart rate regulation in astronauts after spaceflight

Background Spaceflight causes changes in the cardiovascular control system. The aim of this study was to evaluate postflight recovery of linear and nonlinear neural markers of heart rate modulation, with a special focus on day-night variations. Material/Methods Twenty-four-hour Holter ECG recordings were obtained in 8 astronauts participating in space missions aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Data recording was performed 1 month before launch, and 5 and 30 days after return to Earth from short- and long-term flights. Cardiovascular control was inferred from linear and nonlinear heart rate variability (HRV) parameters, separately during 2-hour day and 2-hour night recordings. Results No remarkable differences were found in the postflight recovery between astronauts from short- and long-duration spaceflights. Five days after return to Earth, vagal modulation was significantly decreased compared to the preflight condition (day: p=0.001; night: p=0.019), while the sympathovagal balance was strongly increased, but only at night (p=0.017). A few nonlinear parameters were reduced early postflight compared to preflight values, but these were not always statistically significant. No significant differences remained after 30 days of postflight recovery. Conclusions Our results show that 5 days after return from both short- and long-duration space missions, neural mechanisms of heart rate regulation are still disturbed. After 1 month, autonomic control of heart rate recovered almost completely.