The effects of body position, controlled breathing and exercise on the heart rate variability parameters in healthy...

The behavior of temporal and spectral parameters of the heart rate variability was determined during 5 different maneuvers in order to characterize the level of sympathetic-vagal activity. The discriminating capacity of two spectral parameter estimation schemes were compared, and the respiratory influence was evaluated. One hundred and ten records of instantaneous heart rate and respiratory amplitude were analyzed, both in temporal and spectral perspectives. The records were obtained from 22 healthy subjects, under a five-stage protocol: supine, controlled breathing, standing, exercise, and recovery. A discriminating and characteristic behavior was found among the maneuvers, specifically for the dispersion parameters, low and intermediate partial components. The two integration-normalization procedures used in the estimation of the spectral components showed similarities, producing a functional interpretation independent of the selected procedure. The division of the low frequency component in two separate bands, allowed an improved discriminating capacity. The respiration had an important influence in the controlled breathing maneuver while being lower in the rest of the stages. In conclusion, the maneuvers determined a typical behavior of the dispersion and spectral parameters (low and intermediate partial components) of the heart rate variability, showing adequate distinctive levels in the sympathetic-vagal activity for each maneuver.