Background: Heart rate deceleration capacity and acceleration capacity are novel autonomic nervous system indicators of cardiac neural regulation. Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) changes cardiac electrophysiology; however, how deceleration capacity and acceleration capacity associated with DCM remain unclear.
Materials and methods: To evaluate the association between heart rate acceleration capacity, deceleration capacity and DCM, 66 DCM patients with DCM and 209 controls were enrolled in the study. Demographic data, echocardiographic data, heart rate variability, deceleration capacity and acceleration capacity were collected. The association pattern between DCM and these indexes were studied by multiple logistic regression analysis.
Results: Deceleration capacity and acceleration capacity were independent risk factors for DCM with an odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI), determined by multiple logistic regression analysis, of 7·97 (3·87-16·42) and 0·09 (0·05-0·19), respectively. Univariate ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that acceleration capacity, fastest heart rate, standard deviation of normal-to-normal RR intervals (SDNN) and left ventricular ejection fraction (LEVF) associated with heart failure grade. The OR for each covariate was further adjusted for the effects of other significant covariates in multivariate ordinal logistic regression analysis. Acceleration capacity, fastest heart rate and LVEF were still independent risk factors in the final equation with ORs of 1·32 (1·03-1·79), 1·04 (0·01-1·07) and 0·46 (0·23-0·93), respectively.
Conclusion: Heart rate acceleration capacity and deceleration capacity are independent risk factors for DCM, and acceleration capacity is a predictive factor for heart failure exacerbation in patients with DCM.
Keywords: Dilated cardiomyopathy; electrophysiology; heart rate acceleration capacity; heart rate deceleration capacity.
© 2016 Stichting European Society for Clinical Investigation Journal Foundation.