Sarcopenia is associated to an impaired autonomic heart rate modulation in community-dwelling old adults

The aims of this study were to compare the autonomic heart control parameters from sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic community-dwelling elders.

This is a cross-sectional study including 76 community-dwelling old adults, which was clinically stratified as sarcopenic or non-sarcopenic, according to the current recommendations. They were submitted to 5-min recordings of successive RR intervals. The analysis of the RR intervals variability was carried out in time (mean RR, RMSSD, pNN50, SDNN and triangular index) and frequency domains (LFnu, HFnu and LF/HF ratio), and with nonlinear methods (SD1, SD2, and D₂). The parameters of autonomic heart rate modulation (AHRM) were adjusted for potential confounders: sex, diabetes, beta-blockers use, cardiovascular disease, body mass index and physical activity level, smoking habit. Normality of the data was tested by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and, since most variables did not exhibit a normal distribution the Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the parameters of AHRM. The significance level was set as p ≤ 0.05 and all statistical procedures were performed with SPSS^®.

Adjusted parameters of AHRM obtained from time domain and nonlinear methods were significantly different between sarcopenic and non-sarcopenic elders (p < 0.05), while parameters obtained from frequency domain analysis did not were different between groups (p > 0.05).

Sarcopenic old adults exhibited lower parasympathetic-associated modulation, suggesting a poor cardioprotection associated to this condition.