Heart rate variability in acute pancreatitis: a narrative review

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Gastroenterology
• Critical Care Medicine

Background:

• Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a severe inflammatory condition with significant mortality risk.
• Current prognostic tools for AP often require invasive testing and lack dynamic monitoring capabilities.
• Heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of autonomic nervous system activity, is explored as a novel prognostic indicator.

Purpose of the Study:

• To synthesize existing literature on the use of HRV for prognostication and monitoring of AP.
• To evaluate HRV's potential as a risk stratification tool for AP complications.
• To compare HRV's predictive accuracy against established AP scoring systems.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature search across major databases (PubMed, CENTRAL, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase) up to December 2023.
• Review of articles mentioning AP and HRV, analyzing AP complications and their effects on HRV parameters.
• Analysis of HRV's association with AP severity and patient outcomes.

Main Results:

• Decreased HRV parameters correlate with AP complications, indicating suppressed sympathetic activity.
• HRV shows potential to outperform existing scoring systems in predicting AP complication outcomes.
• Preliminary findings suggest HRV can predict AP severity and patient prognosis.

Conclusions:

• HRV monitoring offers a promising, potentially superior, non-invasive method for AP prognostication.
• Further research is essential to validate HRV's accuracy and clinical utility in AP.
• HRV monitoring holds optimistic prospects for predicting AP onset, outcomes, and complications.