Intra-class Correlation among Heart Rate Variability analysis softwares across different physiological postures

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a simple technique which helps to assess the alterations in cardiac autonomic activity in healthy and diseased individuals. It is performed in various research centers using different hardwares and softwares. Hence, HRV reports generated from these centers cannot be compared unless their HRV data acquisition systems and the HRV analysis softwares correlate or agree with each other. In this study, Intra-class correlation coefficient test was done to see the extent of correlation among three HRV analysis softwares used by researchers in India, namely, (1). Kubios HRV version 2.0, Department of Physics, University of Kuopio, Finland, (2). HRV soft 1.1 Version, Autonomic Function Laboratory, Department of Physiology, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and (3). Nevrokard aHRV 12.0.0. (Medistar Inc., Slovenia). Following standard guidelines, five minutes ECG data was acquired from twenty six healthy volunteers in supine, sitting and standing positions. The R-R intervals were computed from the ECG data and was subjected to short-term HRV analysis using the above three softwares. Statistical analysis revealed a highly significantly (p<0.001) perfect positive correlation (ICC values > 0.8) among the three softwares for both time domain and frequency domain parameters in the three different positions. Hence, it may be proposed that the interpretation of short-term HRV reports generated by the three softwares, across laboratories, can be equated.