Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 27, 2026
Calculating Heart Rate Variability from ECG Data from Youth with Cerebral Palsy During Active Video Game Sessions
Published on: June 5, 2019
Heart Rate Variability Discriminates Outcomes After Pediatric Cardiac Arrest
Duncan B Mackie1, Craig M Smith1,2, L Nelson Sanchez-Pinto1,2
1Department of Pediatrics, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Objective:
To assess the performance of heart rate variability (HRV) in discriminating death and functional neurologic outcomes in children post-cardiac arrest.
Design:
Single-center retrospective review of physiologic and clinical data.
Setting:
Forty-six-bed PICU.
Patients:
Children older than 28 days and 18 years old or younger admitted to the PICU after in-hospital or out-of-hospital cardiac arrest between 2013 and 2019.
Interventions:
None.
Measurements And Main Results:
The primary outcome was all cause in-hospital mortality within 1 week of arrest. Secondary outcomes included functional neurologic status at hospital discharge by Pediatric Cerebral Performance Category (PCPC) scores, and the presence of poor prognostic findings on transcranial Doppler and/or electroencephalography within 72 hours of ICU admission. Seventy-five patients were included, with a 1-week in-hospital mortality rate of 23% (17 patients). Median integer HRV (mHRVi) in the first 12 hours of PICU admission was significantly lower in patients who experienced 1-week in-hospital mortality ( p < 0.01). The 12-hour mHRVi had an area under the receiver operating characteristic of 0.74 (95% CI, 0.61-0.86) with an area under the precision recall curves of 0.42 for discriminating 1-week in-hospital mortality, and remained statistically significant after adjusting for age, location of arrest, illness severity by Pediatric Risk of Mortality III scoring, and a patients maximum vasoactive-inotropic score ( p = 0.034). There was also a significant association seen between lower 12-hour mHRVi and poor neurologic outcomes by PCPC scoring (odds ratio 0.26 [95% CI, 0.076-0.72]; p = 0.01).
Conclusions:
Lower mHRVi over the first 12 hours of PICU admission after cardiac arrest demonstrated moderate discrimination for 1-week in-hospital mortality and poor neurologic outcomes. These findings suggest that mHRVi may serve as a helpful adjunct within multimodal prognostication frameworks, though further validation in larger, diverse cohorts is required before clinical application.
More Related Videos
05:48Autonomic Function Following Concussion in Youth Athletes: An Exploration of Heart Rate Variability Using 24-hour Recording Methodology
Published on: September 21, 2018
05:36Standardized Model of Ventricular Fibrillation and Advanced Cardiac Life Support in Swine
Published on: January 30, 2020
Related Concept Videos
01:21Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation I: Adult
01:30Factors Influencing Heart Rate
Let us explore the significant factors affecting heart rate, including age, body temperature, posture, acute pain, chemical influences,...
01:25Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation IV: Pharmacological Management
01:30Pulse rhythm
Conversely, an irregular pulse pattern is termed dysrhythmia, stemming from disruptions in cardiac...
01:23Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation III: AED Use
01:19Cardiac Output I:Effect of Heart Rate on Cardiac Output
Cardiac output (CO) refers to the total amount of blood ejected by one of the ventricles in liters per minute (L/min). In a resting adult, CO ranges from 5 to 6 L/min, adjusting according to the body's metabolic requirements.
Effect of Heart Rate on Cardiac Output
Cardiac output adapts to metabolic demands during stress, physical activity, or illness. The autonomic nervous system regulates heart rate via the sinoatrial node. The parasympathetic nervous system decreases heart...