Heart Rate Dynamics in Patients With Stable Angina Pectoris and Utility of Fractal and Complexity Measures

• Published in: The American journal of cardiology 1998, Vol.81 (1), p.27-31
• Main Authors: Mäkikallio, Timo H, Ristimäe, Tiina, Airaksinen, K.E.Juhani, Peng, Chung-Kang, Goldberger, Ary L, Huikuri, Heikki V
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aged; Angina pectoris; Angina Pectoris - diagnosis; Angina Pectoris - physiopathology; Biological and medical sciences; Cardiology. Vascular system; Circadian Rhythm; Coronary heart disease; Data Interpretation, Statistical; Diagnosis, Differential; Entropy; Exercise Test; Female; Fractals; Heart; Heart Rate; Humans; Life Sciences (General); Male; Measurement; Medical research; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Regression Analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Retrospective Studies; Severity of Illness Index; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; Space life sciences; Time Factors
• ISSN: 0002-9149; 1879-1913
• DOI: 10.1016/S0002-9149(97)00799-6

Dynamic analysis techniques may uncover abnormalities in heart rate (HR) behavior that are not easily detectable with conventional statistical measures. However, the applicability of these new methods for detecting possible abnormalities in HR behavior in various cardiovascular disorders is not well established. Conventional measures of HR variability were compared with short-term (≤11 beats, α 1) and long-term (>11 beats, α 2) fractal correlation properties and with approximate entropy of RR interval data in 38 patients with stable angina pectoris without previous myocardial infarction or cardiac medication at the time of the study and 38 age-matched healthy controls. The short- and long-term fractal scaling exponents (α 1, α 2) were significantly higher in the coronary patients than in the healthy controls (1.34 ± 0.15 vs 1.11 ± 0.12 [p