Pitfalls of assessment of autonomic function by heart rate variability

• Main Authors: Junichiro Hayano, Emi Yuda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2019-03-01
• Series: Journal of Physiological Anthropology
• Subjects: Heart rate variability; Autonomic nervous system; Respiratory sinus arrhythmia; Cardiorespiratory coupling; Spectral analysis
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40101-019-0193-2

Abstract Although analysis of heart rate variability is widely used for the assessment of autonomic function, its fundamental framework linking low-frequency and high-frequency components of heart rate variability with sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic divisions has developed in the 1980s. This simplified framework is no longer able to deal with much evidence about heart rate variability accumulated over the past half-century. This review addresses the pitfalls caused by the old framework and discusses the points that need attention in autonomic assessment by heart rate variability.