Applicability and performance of heart rate variability methods

Heart rate variability (HR V) may be measured using different measurement techniques. Almost all of these techniques deal with ectopic beats. Either these beats are excluded from the analysis or they are required. To access the functional character and easiness of use of several HRV techniques we compared Holter registrations in three patient groups: normal subjects, post infarction patients and patients with heart failure. Analysis speed, sensitivity to non sinus intervals, applicability and accuracy were investigated. Time as well as frequency domain techniques, heart rate turbulence and a non linear measure of HRV were studied. The results of the analysis suggest that non linear analysis is as least as potent as conventional HRV techniques in discriminating between patient groups. This technique can be applied in all patients with minimal computational effort and without the need for accurate analysis of the ECG.