Comparison of cardiac autonomic activity between malnourished and healthy children.
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Date
2012-07
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Abstract
Severe malnutrition can significantly compromise autonomic
nervous system. However, less is known about the cardiac autonomic
activity in mild and moderate grades of malnutrition in children. Therefore,
the objective of this study was to assess the effect of mild/moderate
malnutrition on heart rate variability (HRV), a non invasive tool to estimate
the cardiac autonomic activity. A cross sectional, community based study
was conducted in which 35 malnourished children (mean age: 6.06±2.04
yrs), on the basis of anthropometric parameters, were enrolled in the study
group by random samplings, who were the children of urban slum dwellers
and 35 age and sex matched healthy children, were taken as controls.
Grading of malnutrition was done according to Indian Academy of Pediatrics
(IAP) classification. Anthropometry, basal heart rate (BHR), blood pressure
were determined. Time domain and frequency domain indices of HRV were
assessed using RMS Polyrite D (version 2.4). Weight, height, mid arm
circumference (MAC) and body mass index (BMI) were found to be
statistically lower in the study group. There was a strong negative
correlation between MAC and LF component (P<0.01). BHR was found to
be increased in the malnourished group (P=0.027). Low frequency (LFnu)
& LF-HF ratio were found to be increased (P=0.000 & P=0.001 respectively)
while high frequency (HFnu) component was decreased (P=0.000) in
malnourished group. Our results suggested that impaired cardiac autonomic
nerve function characterized by sympathetic over activity may occur in
malnourished children. This study also enables us to compare, in future
works, HRV in pediatric subjects with different grades of malnutrition.
Description
Keywords
mild, moderate, malnutrition, children, heart rate variability, mid arm circumference
Citation
Srivastava Divya, Singh Kiran, Misra Rajesh, Prakash Ashish. Comparison of cardiac autonomic activity between malnourished and healthy children. Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology. 2012 Jul-Sept; 56(3): 222-228.