Heart rate variability (HRV) is a well-known method for the assessment of autonomic nervous function of the heart. Previous study suggested that pulse rate variability (PRV) determined by photoplethysmography could be used instead of HRV to more simply assess autonomic nervous function. However, most research studies included healthy subjects. Thus, the aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility for PRV as a surrogate index for patients with chronic pain. This study investigated the correlation coefficient (by Pearson correlation) and agreement (by Bland-Altman analysis) between PRV and HRV in chronic pain patients in the clinical setting. The results showed high significant correlations (p < 0.001, r > 0.86) between all the HRV and PRV parameters and good agreements (ratio < 0.1) between the parameters in terms of HR, mean RR, VLF, LF, nLF, nHF, and SD1/SD2. Our study suggests that HRV can also be reliably estimated using the photoplethysmography-based PP interval in elderly patients with chronic pain.
Keywords: Autonomic nervous system; Chronic pain; Heart rate variability; Photoplethysmography.