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Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Children
Published on: April 29, 2013
Pediatric impedance cardiography: temporal stability and intertask consistency
1Department of Psychology, Bowling Green State University, Ohio 43403, USA. jjmcgra@hotmail.com
Psychophysiology
|May 16, 2001
Summary
Pediatric cardiovascular reactivity to stress is reliably measured using impedance cardiography. This method offers consistent and stable assessments for children, unlike blood pressure measures.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric cardiology
- Cardiovascular physiology
- Biomedical engineering
Background:
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has origins in childhood.
- While heart rate and blood pressure (BP) reliability in children is known, impedance cardiography (ICG) reliability is unevaluated.
- Assessing pediatric cardiovascular reactivity is crucial for early CVD detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability and consistency of impedance cardiography measures in children.
- To compare the reliability of ICG measures with traditional BP measures.
- To determine if ICG can be a dependable tool for assessing children's cardiovascular responses to stress.
Main Methods:
- Thirty-three children (ages 8-11) participated in two testing sessions.
- Cardiovascular measures included impedance cardiography and blood pressure.
- Laboratory stressors comprised serial subtraction, isometric handgrip, and mirror-image tracing tasks.
Main Results:
- ICG measures demonstrated moderately high temporal stability (average scores r(avg) = .74) and intertask consistency (average scores r(avg) = .78).
- Blood pressure measures showed the lowest reliability.
- Specific ICG indices like Heather index, preejection period, and stroke volume exhibited the highest reliability.
Conclusions:
- Impedance cardiography provides reliable and consistent assessment of cardiovascular reactivity in children.
- ICG is a more reliable method than BP for assessing pediatric cardiovascular responses to laboratory stressors.
- These findings support the use of ICG for robust pediatric cardiovascular research and clinical assessment.
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