Abstract
Purpose
Heart rate variability (HRV) may be influenced by several factors, such as environment (hypoxia, hyperoxia, hypercapnia) or physiological demand (exercise). In this retrospective study, we tested the hypothesis that inter-beat (RR) intervals in healthy subjects exercising under various environmental stresses exhibit oscillations at the same frequency than ventilatory oscillations.
Methods
Spectra from RR intervals and ventilation (\(\dot{V}\)E) were collected from 37 healthy young male subjects who participated in 5 previous studies focused on ventilatory oscillations (or periodic breathing) during exercise in hypoxia, hyperoxia and hypercapnia. Bland and Altman test and multivariate regressions were then performed to compare respective frequencies and changes in peak powers of the two signals.
Results
Fast Fourier analysis of RR and \(\dot{V}\)E signals showed that RR was oscillating at the same frequency than periodic breathing, i.e., ~ 0.09 Hz (11 s). During exercise, in these various conditions, the difference between minimum and maximum HRV peak power was positively correlated to the same change in ventilation peak power (P < 0.05). Low-frequency (LF) peak power was correlated to tidal volume (P < 0.01) and breathing frequency (P < 0.001).
Conclusions
This study suggests that low-frequency ventilatory oscillations in hypoxia are a major contributor to the LF band power of heart rate variability.
Clinical Trial Reg. no.
NCT02201875.
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Abbreviations
- ACZ:
-
Acetazolamide
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- CHF:
-
Chronic heart failure
- FFT:
-
Fast Fourier transform
- HF:
-
High frequency
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- HRV:
-
Heart rate variability
- LF:
-
Low frequency
- LOA:
-
Limits of agreement
- MAP:
-
Maximal aerobic power
- PB:
-
Periodic breathing
- RR:
-
Interbeat interval
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- Ti:
-
Inspiratory time
- Ttot:
-
Total respiratory cycle time
- \(\dot{V}E\) :
-
Ventilation
- VLF:
-
Very low frequency
- VT:
-
Tidal volume
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EH, AP and JPR conceived and designed research. EH, JPR and FL conducted experiments. EH analyzed data. EH wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.
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Communicated by Keith Phillip George.
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Hermand, E., Pichon, A., Lhuissier, F.J. et al. Low-frequency ventilatory oscillations in hypoxia are a major contributor to the low-frequency component of heart rate variability. Eur J Appl Physiol 119, 1769–1777 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04166-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-019-04166-x