Cardiac Autonomic Dysfunction in Patients With Epilepsy

Objective: The objective of this research was to appraise autonomic impairment through the examination of both time-domain and frequency-domain parameters of heart rate variability in individuals with epilepsy. Methods: Thirty epilepsy patients and thirty healthy subjects were enrolled in our study for evaluation of autonomic functions, which was assessed by comparing heart rate variability between epilepsy patients and healthy subjects. Results: There was no notable disparity observed in mean heart rate between the two groups. However, the frequency-domain metrics-LF Power, HF Power, and LF/HF ratio exhibited statistically noteworthy differences when comparing the patients to the control group (p-value<0.05). Conversely, parameters such as SDNN, RMSST, and pNN50 did not demonstrate statistically considerable differences in comparison to the controls (p-value>0.05). The parameters did not exhibit statistically significant distinctions between individuals with epilepsy for under 10 y and those diagnosed with epilepsy for over 10 y. Conclusion: Our investigation revealed a notable contrast in HRV metrics between the patient group and the group of individuals in good health. The potential utilization of HRV as an indicator of susceptibility to SUDEP could enhance the quality of guidance provided to both patients and their families. Additional exploration is warranted, involving more extensive participant cohorts, and examining the impact of antiepileptic medications on HRV, within future studies.