Why the study?
Heart rate fragmentation is measured as part of high-frequency power and may confound parasympathetic functional assessment by heart rate variability.
Heart rate fragmentation confounds the assessment of parasympathetic function by heart rate variability, particularly in older adults (60-90 years) and children.
HRF may confound HF-based parasympathetic assessment in older adults; leaves open whether fragmentation-adjusted HRV improves risk prediction.
Heart rate fragmentation (HRF) is a type of sinoatrial instability characterized by frequent (often every beat) appearance of inflection in the R-R interval time series, despite the electrocardiograms appearing to be sinus rhythm. Because the assessment of parasympathetic function by heart rate variability (HRV) analysis depends on the assumption that the high-frequency component (HF, 0.15–0.4 Hz) of HRV is mediated solely by the cardiac parasympathetic nerve, HRF that is measured as a part of HF power confounds the parasympathetic functional assessment by HRV. In this study, we analyzed HRF in a 24-h electrocardiogram big data and investigated the changes in HRF with age and sex and its influence on the assessment of HRV. We observed that HRF is often observed during childhoods (0–20 year) and increased after 75 year, but it has a large impact on individual differences in HF power at ages 60–90.
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Hayano et al. (2020) studied this question.
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