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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Autonomic Function Following Concussion in Youth Athletes: An Exploration of Heart Rate Variability Using 24-hour Recording Methodology
Published on: September 21, 2018
Autonomic function during closed loop stimulation and fixed rate pacing: heart rate variability analysis from 24-hour
Raffaele Quaglione1, Giovanni Calcagnini, Federica Censi
1Istituto del Cuore e dei Grossi Vasi "Attilio Reale," 1a Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia, Università di Roma "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy.
Aim:
Aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the effect of closed-loop stimulation (CLS) and DDD pacing mode on autonomic balance, and to evaluate heart rate variability (HRV) during CLS stimulation.
Methods And Materials:
Autonomic balance was estimated by a 24-hour HRV analysis of paced and spontaneous beats in patients implanted with a dual-chamber pacemaker (Inos(2+) CLS-Biotronik GmbH, Berlin, Germany) and randomly assigned to CLS or DDD pacing mode. Patients underwent two 24-hour electrocardiogram Holter recordings at the end of each 3-month pacing mode period. Each Holter recording was automatically scanned to extract sequences of consecutive beats of the same type [atrial paced (Ap)-sequence and atrial spontaneous (As)-sequence], lasting at least 130 beats.
Results:
Eight hundred and ten sequences were extracted from 15 patients, and the following spectral parameters were evaluated during both CLS and DDD mode: the total power (variance), the absolute and percentage (relative to the total power) powers of the low frequency (LF, 0.04-0.15 Hz) and high frequency (HF, 0.15-0.4 Hz) components, as well as the LF/HF power ratio.
Discussion:
The two main findings of this study were: in all the patients, CLS seems to mimic short-term physiological HRV, although the variability (total power) was lower than that relative to the spontaneous beats; the HRV of the spontaneous beats had an higher LF/HF when the pacemaker was programmed as DDD respect to CLS, consistent with a shift toward sympathetic predominance.
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