The Holter Electrocardiogram Monitoring Method for Evaluating the Heart Rhythm Variability in Children With Diabetes Mellitus of Type 1

Aim. To study the state of vegetative regulation according to the results of heart rate variability in children with type 1 diabetes mellitus during the Holter electrocardiogram monitoring on a daily basis. Object and methods of research. Under supervision were 40 children aged 2.5 to 16 years old, including 20 children with type 1 diabetes (the first ? the main group) and 20 children without diabetes (second group) who underwent Holter monitoring of electrocardiogram during being in the Department of Endocrinology of the Childrens Municipal Clinical Hospital in Poltava. Children of both groups, depending on their age, were divided into two subgroups of 10 children in each subgroup: the first subgroup of the main group ? children under the age of 10, the second subgroup of the main group ? children from 11 to 16 years old. A similar distribution of children was in the second group of children without diabetes. Results. Conducting the Holter monitoring of ECG in children with diabetes showed that two departments of the vegetative nervous system are involved in the formation of violations of vegetative regulation of cardiac rhythm. The data of spectral characteristics of heart rate variability (VLF, LF) testify to the high voltage of vegetative-regulatory mechanisms under the conditions of chronic stress in children with type 1 diabetes. The use of the Holter ECG monitoring contributed to the detection of electrical instability of the myocardium in 55% of children in the primary group with diabetes (25% in each subgroup). The detected increase in dispersion (according to the standard ECG) and the variability (according to the Holter ECG monitoring) of the QT interval in patients with type 1 diabetes in the form of an elongated and slightly elongated compared with the age-sexual norm of the QT interval allows to timely form risk groups for children, which have a risk of developing arrhythmias. Conclusions. Identified risk groups for children at risk of developing arrhythmias, based on the Holter monitoring of ECG, require this survey to be conducted in dynamics.