von Falkenhausen, A.S.* ; Wenner, F.N.* ; Freyer, L.* ; Sams, L.E.* ; Heier, M. ; Peters, A. ; Linkohr, B. ; Massberg, S.* ; Bauer, A.* ; Kääb, S.* ; Rizas, K.D.* ; Sinner, M.F.*
Traditional and advanced electrocardiographic measures of autonomic function in the population-based KORA-F3 study.
Eur. J. Epidemiol. 40, 815–832 (2025)
AIMS: Heart-rate variability (HRV) measures are surrogates of autonomic function at the level of the sinus node and have evolved as markers of cardiovascular mortality in patients after myocardial infarction (MI). Traditionally, HRV is assessed in time-domain and frequency domain. Advanced measures of autonomic function include deceleration capacity (DC) and periodic repolarization dynamics (PRD). DC predominantly quantifies the influence of parasympathetic tone. PRD captures low-frequency oscillations of repolarization instability and is considered to reflect sympathetic activity at the level of the left ventricular myocardium. However, population-based reference values are missing. METHODS AND RESULTS: In 505 participants of the population-based KORA F3 study (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) with extant digital 24-h Holter electrocardiograms we assessed markers of HRV in time and frequency domains. Additionally, we determined advanced measures of autonomic function including DC and PRD applying previously established technologies. We used standard, pre-defined cut-off values to define high-risk groups. The cohort's mean age was 63.6 ± 5.5 years, and 256 (50.1%) were women. Among HRV measures, exemplarily the median standard deviation of all normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN) was 141 ms [119;165] and the median low frequency to high frequency ratio (LF/HF-ratio) was 3.92 [2.69;6.18]. Regarding autonomic function, median DC was 5.32 ms [2.69;6.18], and median PRD was 2.92 ms [2.06;4.14]. Among these measures LF/HF-ratio was significantly higher among men (5.15 [3.23; 7.20]) than women (3.37 [2.36;4.53], p < 0.001). Measured distribution is also provided in a cohort subset without overt cardiovascular conditions. While DC decreased with age, SDNN, LF/HF-ratio, and PRD were stable across age-groups. For participants with comorbidities including hypertension, intake of betablockers, history of MI, stroke, or diabetes mellitus significantly lower SDNN, LF/HF-ratio, and DC were observed. CONCLUSION: In a large population-based cohort, we systematically present traditional and advanced measures of HRV of cardiac autonomic function. We report reference values in the overall cohort, as well as stratified by sex, age, and concomitant cardiovascular conditions.
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Publikationstyp
Artikel: Journalartikel
Dokumenttyp
Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
Typ der Hochschulschrift
Herausgeber
Schlagwörter
Autonomic Tone ; Deceleration Capacity ; Ecg ; Heart-rate Variability ; Periodic Repolarization Dynamics; Heart-rate-variability; Periodic Repolarization Dynamics; Myocardial-infarction; Postinfarction Patients; Deceleration Capacity; Risk Stratification; Reference Values; Mortality; Disease; Prediction
Keywords plus
Sprache
englisch
Veröffentlichungsjahr
2025
Prepublished im Jahr
0
HGF-Berichtsjahr
2025
ISSN (print) / ISBN
0393-2990
e-ISSN
1573-7284
ISBN
Bandtitel
Konferenztitel
Konferzenzdatum
Konferenzort
Konferenzband
Quellenangaben
Band: 40,
Heft: ,
Seiten: 815–832
Artikelnummer: ,
Supplement: ,
Reihe
Verlag
Springer
Verlagsort
Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3311 Gz Dordrecht, Netherlands
Tag d. mündl. Prüfung
0000-00-00
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Gutachter
Prüfer
Topic
Hochschule
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Veröffentlichungsdatum
0000-00-00
Anmeldedatum
0000-00-00
Anmelder/Inhaber
weitere Inhaber
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Begutachtungsstatus
Peer reviewed
Institut(e)
Institute of Epidemiology (EPI)
POF Topic(s)
30202 - Environmental Health
Forschungsfeld(er)
Genetics and Epidemiology
PSP-Element(e)
G-504000-006
G-504000-010
G-504090-001
Förderungen
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Copyright
Erfassungsdatum
2025-06-27