European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of mortality and morbidity. Early detection of cardiovascular disease will help to effectively treat the disease and avoid complications. There is an adverse impact on autonomics functions in coronary artery disease (CAD) resulting in sympathetic predominance. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a non-invasive economical tool to assess the autonomic function.
Material and methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Cardiology, AIIMS, New Delhi. Thirty patients with TMT positive/angiographically proven CAD admitted for elective Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PTCA) satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria in the age group of 40 to 65 years served as cases. The control group consisted of age, anthropometrically matched and TMT negative subjects who satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Conclusion: Our study shows that the patients with CAD had a reduced HRV. In patients with CAD, there was an increase in sympathetic activity and reduced parasympathetic activity. There was improvement in HRV on third day following PTCA indicating a better prognosis.