Relation of heart rate variability to serum levels of C-reactive protein in patients with severe sepsis and septic shock

In this study we tried to quantify the instantaneous and longitudinal correlations between different heart rate variability (HRV) indices and daily measured C-reactive protein (CRP) serum levels in a group of patients with severe sepsis. Metrics used were performed daily in 20 consecutive septic patients and included serum levels of CRP, power spectral analysis in both the time and frequency domain and the two values of standard deviations (SD1, SD2) obtained from the Poincaré plot. CRP blood levels exhibited significant negative correlations with LF, LF/HF and SDNN and positive correlations with HF and SD1/SD2. SDNN, LF and HF power values were the most significant predictors of increasing CRP levels and proved to be significantly different between survivors (n=16) and non-survivors (n=4).