Cosine analysis of heart beat data of children in a stressful situation

The EKG of twenty-four children (mean age = = 5.7 years) was individually and continuously recorded in a dental situation. Measures of cardiac activity (heart rate [HR] and heart rate variability [HRV]) were computed by means of a CDC 1,700 and an IBM 360 computer. Histograms of heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV) measures were generated. -Successive cosine fits were fitted for each 70 beats within an interval for each individual and these cosine fits were also presented in a histogram which represented a frequency analysis of cyclic functions within individuals. Within and between subject correlations were also computed for all measures. Sinus arrhythmia seemed to account for less of the variance than a yet unexplained cosine fit function having a lower limit of 18.6 seconds in this child population. In this population many measures of HRV seem to be negatively correlated with HR.