Why the study?
Do nonlinear properties of heart rate variability differ between patients with eating disorders and healthy controls?
Do nonlinear properties of heart rate variability differ between patients with eating disorders and healthy controls?
Patients with anorexia nervosa demonstrate more severe alterations in cardiac autonomic function compared to those with bulimia nervosa, as evidenced by decreased fractal scaling exponent alpha and low-frequency heart rate variability.
Hypothesis-generating for differential autonomic profiles in eating disorders; prospective studies needed before clinical adoption.
Patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa often have signs of autonomic dysfunction potentially deleterious to the heart. The aim of this study was to ascertain the nonlinear properties of heart rate variability in patients with eating disorders. A group of 33 women with eating disorders (14 anorexia, 19 bulimia) and 19 healthy controls were included in the study. Conventional time- and frequency-domain heart rate variability measurements, along with nonlinear heart rate variability measurements including the short-term fractal scaling exponent alpha and approximate entropy (ApEn) were calculated. Anorexia nervosa patients exhibited decreased values of alpha, while bulimia nervosa patients had decreased values of ApEn. Low-frequency heart rate variability was decreased in patients with anorexia. In conclusion, these results are compatible with the view that a more severe alteration of cardiac autonomic function is present in anorexia than in bulimia.
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Vigo et al. (2008) studied this question.
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