Reliability analysis of the heart autonomic control parameters during hemodialysis sessions

The study of heart autonomic control (HAC) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) undergoing dialysis treatment has been carried out, however, there are no studies reporting the reliability of measurements of HAC parameters involving the mentioned samples and conditions. The reliability of many HAC parameters was evaluated from patients with CKD during two sessions of hemodialysis. The successive R-R intervals were recorded during two sessions of hemodialysis from 14 CKD patients that were undergoing dialysis for at least 6 months and with no history of recurrent hypotensive events. HAC parameters were obtained with time and frequency domain analysis, as well as with nonlinear methods. The reliability was measured with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The results showed excellent reliability (ICC=0.90-0.98) for most heart rate variability (HRV) parameters, especially the parameters obtained in the time domain [square root of the mean squared differences between successive R-R intervals (RMSSD), percentage of adjacent R-R intervals that differ by more than 50 ms (pNN50), mean of the 5-min standard deviations of R-R intervals (SDNNi), and triangular index] and with non-linear methods [standard deviation of the instantaneous variability beat-to-beat (SD1), standard deviation in long-term continuous R-R intervals (SD2), detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) α1 and α2, approximate and sample entropies, and correlation dimension (D2): ICC=0.86-0.96]. Among the parameters obtained in the frequency domain (normalized magnitude from the spectrum of low-frequency components (LFnu), normalized magnitude from the spectrum of high-frequency components (HFnu), and LF/HF ratio), the LF/HF ratio showed better reliability (ICC=0.96 vs. ICC=0.70). Measurements of HAC parameters have excellent test-retest reliability for the studied samples and conditions.