The validity and reliability of an open source biosensing board to quantify heart rate variability

Joel S Burma; Andrew P Lapointe; Ateyeh Soroush; Ibukunoluwa K Oni; Jonathan D Smirl; Jeff F Dunn

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07148

The validity and reliability of an open source biosensing board to quantify heart rate variability

Heliyon. 2021 May 27;7(6):e07148. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07148. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Authors

Joel S Burma^{1

2

3

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5

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7}, Andrew P Lapointe^{6

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9}, Ateyeh Soroush^{7

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9}, Ibukunoluwa K Oni^{7

8

9}, Jonathan D Smirl^{1

2

3

4

5

6

7}, Jeff F Dunn^{5

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7

8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Cerebrovascular Concussion Laboratory, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
² Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
³ Human Performance Laboratory, Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁴ Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁵ Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁶ Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁷ Integrated Concussion Research Program, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
⁸ Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
⁹ Department of Radiology, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract

Background: Heart rate variability (HRV) is a popular tool to quantify autonomic function. However, this typically requires an expensive 3-12 lead electrocardiogram (ECG) and BioAmp system. This investigation sought to determine the validity and reliability of an OpenBCI cyton biosensing board (open source) for accurately quantifying HRV.

New method: A cyton board with a 3-lead ECG was employed to acquire heart rate waveform data, which was processed to obtain HRV within both time- and frequency-domains. The concurrent validity was compared to a simultaneous recording from an industry-standard 3-lead ECG (ADInstruments) (n = 15). The reliability of the cyton board was compared between three days within a 7-day timespan (n = 10). Upright quiet-stance short-term HRV metrics were quantified in time- and frequency-domains.

Results: The two devices displayed excellent limits of agreements (all log mean differences ±0.4) and very high between-device variable associations (all r ² > 0.98). Between the three time points in the same subjects, no differences were noted within time- (all p > 0.71) or frequency-domains (all p > 0.88) across testing points. Finally, all HRV metrics exhibited excellent levels of reliability through high Cronbach's Alpha (all ≥0.916) and intraclass correlation coefficients (all ≥0.930); and small standard error of the measurement (all ≤0.7) and typical error of the measurement (all ≤0.1) metrics.

Comparison with existing methods: The cyton board with 3-lead ECG was compared with an industry-standard ADInstruments ECG during HRV assessments. There were no significant differences between devices with respect to time- and frequency-domains. The cyton board displayed high-levels of between-day reliability and provided values harmonious to previous ECG literature highlighting the applicability for longitudinal studies.

Conclusion: With proper background knowledge regarding ECG principles and a small degree of set-up complexity, an open source cyton board can be created and employed to perform multimodal HRV assessments at a fraction of the cost (~4%) of an industry-standard ECG setup.

Keywords: Cyton board; Electrocardiography; Heart rate variability; Open source; Reliability; Validity.