Why the study?
Do heart rate variability measures correlate with outcome or residual functional state in severely brain-injured patients with disordered consciousness?
Do heart rate variability measures correlate with outcome or residual functional state in severely brain-injured patients with disordered consciousness?
Heart rate variability analysis may be a useful non-invasive tool to assess residual brain function and predict outcomes in patients with severe disorders of consciousness.
May support non-invasive monitoring of residual function in disorders of consciousness; leaves open prospective validation before clinical adoption.
OBJECTIVE: To review the applicability of heart rate variability measures in research on severe disorder of consciousness. METHODS: The available evidence on the correlation between heart rate variability measures and the outcome or residual functional state/responsiveness of severely brain-injured patients (including those in vegetative or minimally conscious states) are reviewed and discussed with reference to the central autonomic network model. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Heart rate variability analyses appear to be applicable to assess residual or emerging (higher level) function in brain-injured patients with disordered consciousness and to predict outcome. In this regard, the central autonomic network model is heuristic in the understanding of heart rate variability descriptors of the central nervous system/autonomic systems relationship.
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Riganello et al. (2012) studied this question.
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