Key result
High GI symptoms in hEDS are linked to altered ultralow-frequency HRV in ~92% of signals.
Why the study?
Holter-based HRV assessment for autonomic dysfunction is expensive and limited to short durations, prompting the use of wearable biometric devices to evaluate intra- and inter-individual autonomic variability and its link to gastrointestinal symptoms in hEDS.
Does heart rate variability measured by a wearable biometric device correlate with gastrointestinal symptom severity in individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?
Observational (n=26)
Does heart rate variability measured by a wearable biometric device correlate with gastrointestinal symptom severity in individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome?
Wearable biometric devices can detect changes in heart rate variability (specifically VLF and ULF domains) that correlate with gastrointestinal symptom flares in individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Supports wearable HRV monitoring of GI flares in hEDS; hypothesis-generating and should not yet change practice.
Introduction: People with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) experience multisystemic dysfunction with varying severity and unpredictability of flare occurrence. Cohort studies suggest that individuals with hEDS have a higher risk for autonomic dysfunction. The gold standard for assessing autonomic function, clinically, is the heart rate variability (HRV) assessment from 24-h Holter monitor electrocardiogram data, but this is expensive and can only be performed in short durations. Since their advent, biometric devices have been a non-invasive method for tracking HRV to assess autonomic function. This study aimed to understand the intra- and inter-individual variability in autonomic function and to associate this variability with gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals with hEDS using wearable devices. Methods: We studied 122 days of biometric device data from 26 individuals, including 35 days highlighted as high gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction and 48 days as low GI dysfunction. Utilizing wavelet analysis to assess the frequency domains of heart rate signals, we compared participants' HRV data for high, low, very low (VLF), and ultralow (ULF) frequency domains associated with physiological differences. Results: We found a significant difference between the VLF and ULF signals on high-GI symptom days compared with low-symptoms days for 92 and 76% of the signals sampled, respectively. Discussion: Our pilot data show a change in HRV for individuals with hEDS experiencing a flare day for a single-body system. Future research will focus on evaluating the relationship between longitudinal multisystemic symptom severity fluctuations and HRV.
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Mathena et al. (2025) conducted an observational in hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (n=26). Wearable biometric device (WHOOP strap) vs. Low gastrointestinal symptom days was evaluated on Significant difference in ultralow frequency (ULF) signals between high and low gastrointestinal symptom days (percentage of significant F-tests) (p=<0.01). In individuals with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, ultralow and very-low frequency heart rate variability signals significantly differed on high-gastrointestinal symptom days compared to low-symptom days in 92% and 76% of sampled signals, respectively.
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