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Estimates of the Parameters of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia

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Abstract

This article shows that significant numerical differences in the estimates of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) parameters by the spectral method and the RMSSD index (standard deviation of the number of first differences between adjacent normal RR intervals) are a consequence of the semantic difference between these estimates: while the spectral method estimates the power and standard deviation of fluctuations in heart rate variability (HRV) in the high-frequency range, RMSSD measures the standard deviation of the HRV rate of change over the full range of HRV frequencies. An analysis of the errors of the spectral method caused by the mismatch between the high-frequency range and the respiration range is presented. Simultaneous recordings of electrocardiography and respiration of 18 young and 17 elderly subjects were used for calculations. It is shown that the errors of the spectral method are 16 ± 9% for the group of young subjects and 29 ± 10% for the group of older subjects. The RMSSD estimates exceed the estimates of the spectral method by an average of 1.4 times. Mathematical analysis of the respiratory rate dependence of the RMSSD index showed that for two records of RR intervals with coinciding spectral estimates of the RSA amplitude, the RMSSD indices can differ by more than 1.5 times depending on the respiratory rate. A method for estimating the rate of change in RR intervals in the respiratory range based on cross-correlation analysis is proposed. The error of the method depends on the number of RR intervals in the record and does not exceed 4% at a heart rate of 60 bpm for a 10-min recording and 6% for a 5-min recording. The method requires simultaneous recordings of ECG and respiration but does not require the construction of spectral densities.

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Funding

The study was performed within the project of scientific research topics included in the scientific work plans of scientific organizations and higher educational institutions implementing research programs supported by the federal budget in accordance with Appendix no. 2 to the order of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation no. 15n of March 21, 2019.

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  1. St. Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, St. Petersburg, Russia

    V. M. Bakhilin

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  1. V. M. Bakhilin
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Correspondence to V. M. Bakhilin.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the biomedical ethics principles formulated in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments and approved by the local bioethical committee of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech (St. Petersburg).

Conflict of interests. The authors declare that they do not have a conflict of interest.

Informed consent. Each study participant provided a voluntary written informed consent signed by him after explaining to him the potential risks and benefits, as well as the nature of the upcoming study.

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Translated by E. Babchenko

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Bakhilin, V.M. Estimates of the Parameters of Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia. Hum Physiol 48, 440–448 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119722040028

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