Heart rate variability in type 2 diabetics

AIM: To assess the autonomic function in type 2 diabetics by evaluating Heart Rate Variability. METHODS: The study was conducted in 80 diabetics and 80 healthy controls, to assess the autonomic control of the heart rate using short term Heart Rate Variability in respect of time domain and frequency domain parameters. RESULTS: The HRV values such as SDNN, RMSSD, NN50; pNN50; LF; HF, LF/HF were significantly (p 0.05) reduced in diabeticscompared to healthy controls. CONCLUSION: This demonstrates that the subclinical autonomic dysfunction may be in asymptomatic diabetics. Parasympathetic regulation appears to be more significantly affected in the early asymptomatic diabetics. However, this study does not correlate HRV changes with various degrees of glycemic control and different durations of diabetes. More prospectivestudies in large diabetic populations are required to validate this inference.