Reduced 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure and abnormal heart rate variability in patients with dysorexia nervosa: Table 1

Dysorexia nervosa (DN) includes two types of eating disorder: anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). AN is a syndrome characterised by changes in eating habits, distortions of body shape, and a refusal to maintain even minimally normal body weight. BN is a syndrome encompassing repeated episodes of binge eating, followed by inappropriate compensatory behaviours such as self induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives and diuretics, fasting or excessive exercise. Both AN and BN predominantly affect young females, in whom the prevalence is approximately 10 times higher than in males, and both are important social health concerns in developed countries.1 The following study was designed to explore the underlying autonomic dysfunction in DN; six patients with AN, eight with BN and 11 healthy subjects were assessed. The circadian changes in blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and heart rate variability (HRV) of the patients were measured. Twenty four hour ambulatory BP and HR were recorded using a portable multibiomedical recorder (TM-2425, A&D Co, Tokyo, Japan). The measurements of BP and HR were repeated every 30 minutes in the waking period from 6 am to 11 …