Quantifying the effect of aging on the autonomic control of heart rate using sequential trend analysis plot

Abstract

Heart rate variability (HRV) is gaining acceptance as a non-invasive tool to analyze the influence of the autonomic nervous system on the heart. Age has a strong influence on heart rate variability, which should be considered in the interpretation of HRV data comparing diseased and normal populations. A nonlinear scatter plot technique called sequential trend analysis is used to quantify the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system activities on the human heart rate. HRV data obtained from an online, publicly available and widely used database of 19 young (21 - 34 years) and 19 elderly (68 - 85 years) rigorously-screened healthy subjects is used for investigation. In this study, it is observed that there is a decrease in both the sympathetic and vagal components in elder subjects. Further, it is observed that the sympathetic and vagal tonic levels are having the same values, representing the healthy condition of the subjects. There is a significant difference between the ANS activity of younger and elder subjects (p value < 0.001). © 2011 Springer-Verlag.