Implementation and interpretation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia measures in psychosomatic medicine: practice against better evidence?

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) or high-frequency heart rate variability has been widely used as a noninvasive measure of cardiac vagal tone. However, their dependency on both respiration rate and tidal volume is largely ignored. Only a minority of studies published in Psychosomatic Medicine in r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychosomatic medicine 2006-07, Vol.68 (4), p.617-627
Main Authors: Ritz, Thomas, Dahme, Bernhard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrhythmia, Sinus - diagnosis
Arrhythmia, Sinus - physiopathology
Cardiac arrhythmia
Heart - innervation
Heart rate
Heart Rate - physiology
Humans
Psychosomatic medicine
Psychosomatic Medicine - methods
Psychosomatic Medicine - standards
Psychosomatic Medicine - statistics & numerical data
Publishing - statistics & numerical data
Regression Analysis
Reproducibility of Results
Research - standards
Research Design - standards
Respiratory Physiological Phenomena
Respiratory system
Sinuses
Tidal Volume - physiology
Vagus Nerve - physiology
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Summary:Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) or high-frequency heart rate variability has been widely used as a noninvasive measure of cardiac vagal tone. However, their dependency on both respiration rate and tidal volume is largely ignored. Only a minority of studies published in Psychosomatic Medicine in recent years has implemented precautions for controlling respiration rate in RSA measures, and tidal volume effects were only rarely addressed. We discuss methodologic issues related to respiratory control methods and present data that demonstrate that both respiration rate and tidal volume contribute substantially to the within-individual RSA variance under conditions of variable breathing, with tidal volume contributing up to one third beyond respiration rate. Finally, we outline a respiratory control method for the time-domain index of RSA and review research pertaining to its reliability, validity, and experimental application.
ISSN:0033-3174
1534-7796
DOI:10.1097/01.psy.0000228010.96408.ed