Heart rate variability in acute pancreatitis: a narrative review

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a complex inflammatory disorder with potential systemic repercussions including sepsis, multiple organ failure and mortality. As such, the development of a prognostic tool to assess the complications and severity of AP is critical as urgent medical intervention is warranted in cases of severe AP to prevent complications and reduce mortality. Despite the plethora of scoring systems such as the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score available for prognostication of AP, they often require manual invasive blood testing and lack the ability to monitor the dynamic progression of the disease. To this end, heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of the autonomic nervous system's modulation on cardiac activity, has emerged as a promising tool. Having been previously posited as a tool to monitor the progression of cardiovascular and neurological conditions, the use of HRV as a risk stratification tool for AP is highly plausible. Therefore, this study aims to synthesize the existing literature regarding the usage of HRV as a tool for the prognostication and monitoring of AP.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, Scopus and Embase from inception to December 2023. Articles with mentions of AP and HRV were reviewed, and the complications of AP and its effects on HRV parameters were analyzed.

Early studies on the use of HRV in AP have revealed the association of decreased HRV parameters with the development of subsequent complications, reflecting the suppression of sympathetic activity as a predominant driving force. In addition, HRV has also been shown to outperform other established scoring systems in predicting outcomes of the complications of AP, but more studies are needed to validate its accuracy.

Preliminary studies have shown that certain parameters of HRV may be used to predict the severity of AP and prognosticate outcomes. Although HRV monitoring demonstrates potential to be superior to existing scoring systems in AP, more research is needed to validate its use as a prognostic tool. Nevertheless, the prospective utility of HRV monitoring in predicting the onset and outcomes of AP and its complications remains optimistic.