Heart rate variability alterations in infants with spontaneous hypertonia

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Cardiology
• Autonomic Nervous System Function
• Neonatal Neurology

Background:

• Hypertonia, defined by increased muscle tone, is associated with autonomic imbalance in adults.
• Cardiac sympatho-vagal control in infants with hypertonia remains under-explored.
• Understanding autonomic function in infant hypertonia is crucial for early diagnosis and management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate cardiac autonomic control in infants diagnosed with hypertonia.
• To utilize heart rate variability (HRV) analysis for assessing sympatho-vagal balance.
• To compare HRV parameters between infants with hypertonia and healthy controls.

Main Methods:

• Studied 30 infants (0-2 years), including 15 with hypertonia and 15 controls.
• Recorded heart rate and R-R interval time series for HRV analysis.
• Employed time-domain, frequency-domain, and non-linear HRV analyses, including entropy measurements.

Main Results:

• Infants with hypertonia demonstrated cardiac autonomic imbalance with significantly altered HRV.
• A notable increase in the low frequency (LF) to high frequency (HF) power ratio was observed in hypertonia infants.
• Time-domain and non-linear HRV metrics, including entropy, were significantly reduced in the hypertonia group.

Conclusions:

• Infants with hypertonia exhibit distinct HRV disturbances compared to healthy infants.
• These findings suggest an alteration in overall cardiac autonomic modulation in infants with hypertonia.
• HRV analysis is a valuable tool for detecting autonomic dysfunction in pediatric hypertonia.