Deceleration capacity of heart rate variability as a predictor of sedation related hypotension

High risk and geriatric patients are supposed to suffer higher risks of hypotension underwent painless endoscopic procedures. This study evaluated different biomarkers associated with hypotension in off-site patients and aimed to determine the most relevant risk factors in space and monitoring limited environment. The inclusions of this observational cohort study underwent complex endoscopic procedures were sedated with age-adjusted doses of target-controlled infusion of propofol. The following pre-sedative parameters were analysed: time domain, frequency domain, and Deceleration capacity (DC) of heart rate variability, estimated cardiac output data and the index of cardiac contractility from the cardiometer. Patients were divided into hypotension group (blood pressure < 90 mmHg or a > 35% decrease) and non-hypotension group according to peri-sedative blood pressure, regression analysis is used to examine the association between factors and hypotension. Total data from 178 patients (age range: 33-94 years) were analysed. Age was not significantly different between the hypotension and non-hypotension groups (p = 0.978). Among all the factors, DC was most associated with hypotension (p = 0.05), better than cardiometer, age, and ASA status. In conclusion, DC, which can be interpreted as the indicator of parasympathetic activity and was significantly and negatively correlated with sedation-related hypotension. Pre-sedative measuring DC from routine ECG monitoring is simple and cost-effective and should be added to haemodynamic monitoring in the endoscopic room.