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Discriminating between two autonomic profiles related to posture in Olympic athletes

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European Journal of Applied Physiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Autonomic assessment might be useful in training management. We planned to assess whether oscillatory metrics of RR variability (such as LFnu) would be more efficient than static indices from low order statistics (RR variance) at discriminating laying rest from stand posture, as an analog of a shift to sympathetic dominance.

Methods

We studied a large population of elite Olympic athletes: a total of 406 athletes (162 females and 244 males, of similar age 21.7 and 24.4 years) participating to the selection for the upcoming 2016 Olympic games. We employed various methods to extract autonomic indices from RR variability and employed a stepwise statistical approach combining factor and discriminant analysis.

Results

We observed that that relative power of oscillatory components from spectral analysis of RR variability (such as LF or HF in nu) and indices from symbolic analysis (particularly 0V) clearly outperform RR variance in discriminating between two physiological conditions (laying rest and stand) related to posture and autonomic activation.

Conclusions

In world class Olympic athletes we have shown that a small subset of RR variability indices, related to sympathovagal balance, may be more appropriate than RR variance to assess excitatory sympathetic autonomic responsiveness of the SA node. These findings may have practical implications for the use of RR variability in guiding training and predicting success in competitions.

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Abbreviations

0V:

No variation

1V:

One variation

2LV:

Two like variation

2UV:

Two unlike variation

ANS:

Autonomic nervous system

CONI:

Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano

FDPs:

Frequent deterministic patterns

HF:

High frequency

HRV:

Heart rate variability

IBM:

International business machines

LF:

Low frequency

nu:

Normalized units

P:

Power

Ro:

Regularity

SA:

Sino atrial

SD:

Standard deviation

SPSS:

Statistical package for social science

V:

Variability

VAF:

Variance accounted for

VAR:

Variance

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Prof. Nadia Solaro for her valuable statistical suggestions.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Milan, BIOMETRA, Milan, Italy

    Roberto Sala, Mara Malacarne, Chiara Vigo & Daniela Lucini

  2. Exercise Medicine and Functional Conditions Section, UO Medicina dell’Esercizio e Patologie Funzionali, Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Via Alessandro Manzoni, 56, 20089, Rozzano, Milan, Italy

    Roberto Sala, Mara Malacarne, Chiara Vigo & Daniela Lucini

  3. Sports Medicine Institute CONI, Rome, Italy

    Antonio Spataro, Stefano Tamorri & Manuela Benzi

Authors
  1. Roberto Sala
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  2. Antonio Spataro
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  3. Mara Malacarne
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  4. Chiara Vigo
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  5. Stefano Tamorri
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  6. Manuela Benzi
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  7. Daniela Lucini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniela Lucini.

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We declare we have no conflict of interest regarding this manuscript.

Additional information

Communicated by Keith Phillip George.

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Sala, R., Spataro, A., Malacarne, M. et al. Discriminating between two autonomic profiles related to posture in Olympic athletes. Eur J Appl Physiol 116, 815–822 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3337-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3337-7

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