Key result
Heart rate variability analysis reflects autonomic tone and shows clear tendencies in sports and clinical settings, but single measurements are insufficient for individual diagnosis or prognosis.
Heart rate variability analysis provides insights into autonomic balance in sports and clinical settings, but its utility for individual diagnosis remains limited and requires careful interpretation.
Cautions against single HRV measures for individual decisions; leaves open longitudinal research on group-level autonomic trends.
Differences in the duration of the cycles reflects the balance of the sympathetic and parasympathetic influence on the heart. Variance in the heart rate correlates to the breathing cycle, to baroreflex sensitivity, to day and night alternations and to changes in the vegetative tone evoked by physical exercises. Analysis of the time and/or frequency power domain of the heart rate variance is expected to have diagnostic value in physiological and pathological situations as adaptation to training, overtraining, heart disease etc. Both time- and frequency domains reflect the same physiological phenomenon but from different point of view. Vagus tonus is reflected in the high frequency part of the range of variance, while an increased sympathetic tone enriches the low frequency part of the variations of the duration of the consecutive heart cycles. This technically simple and relatively inexpensive method has inspired a couple of clinical and sports medical studies. Certain tendencies seem to be clear, but for individual diagnosis or for prognosis the data must be treated very carefully.
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Apor et al. (2009) conducted a review in Vegetative imbalance, overtraining, and cardiovascular conditions. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis was evaluated. Heart rate variability analysis reflects autonomic tone and shows clear tendencies in sports and clinical settings, but single measurements are insufficient for individual diagnosis or prognosis.
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