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Multivariate short-term heart rate variability: a pre-diagnostic tool for screening heart disease

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Abstract

This study has aimed to develop a novel pre-diagnostic tool for primary care screening of heart disease based on multivariate short-term heart rate variability (HRV) analyzed by linear (time and frequency domain) and nonlinear methods (compression entropy (CE), detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), Poincaré plot analysis, symbolic dynamics) applied to 5-min ECG segments. Firstly, we applied HRV analysis to separate healthy subjects (REF) from heart disease patients (PAT). Then to optimize the results, we subdivided both groups according to gender: REF (♂ = 78, ♀ = 53) versus PAT (♂ = 378, ♀ = 115). Finally, we divided REF and PAT into two age subgroups (30–50 years vs. 51-70 years of age) to consider the influence of age on HRV. Heart disease patients were classified using a scoring system based on cut-off values calculated from all HRV indices obtained from the REF. After combining the optimum indices from all different analyzing methods, sensitivities of more than 72% and a specificity of 100% in all subgroups were revealed. Nonlinear indices proved to be better for discriminating heart disease patients from healthy subjects. Multivariate short-term HRV, analyzed by both linear and nonlinear methods appears to be a suitable pre-diagnostic tool for screening heart disease in primary care settings.

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Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Vo505/8-1 and Vo505/8-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Applied Sciences Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Promenade 2, 07745, Jena, Germany

    Andreas Heitmann, Rico Schroeder & Andreas Voss

  2. University for Health Sciences, 6060, Hall, Austria

    Thomas Huebner

  3. Helmholtz Zentrum München, 85764, Neuherberg, Germany

    Siegfried Perz

Authors
  1. Andreas Heitmann
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  2. Thomas Huebner
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  3. Rico Schroeder
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  4. Siegfried Perz
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  5. Andreas Voss
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Correspondence to Andreas Voss.

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Heitmann, A., Huebner, T., Schroeder, R. et al. Multivariate short-term heart rate variability: a pre-diagnostic tool for screening heart disease. Med Biol Eng Comput 49, 41–50 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0719-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-010-0719-6

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