Heart Rate Variability-A Bibliographical Survey

The study of heart rate variability (HRV) provides a mean for observing the heart’s ability to respond to normal regulatory signals that affect its rhythm. The HRV analysis has proven useful in diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of various pathologies. The modern field of HRV processing is extremely diverse, involving many areas like spectral estimation, system modeling, nonlinear dynamics and chaotic analysis, etc. With the recognition of significant relationship between the autonomic nervous system and cardiovascular mortality, efforts for development of autonomic activity have led to the use of HRV as one of the most promising markers. Thus, there is an urgent need to keep a track of advancements and activities taking place in this emerging field. This paper gives a bibliographical survey and general backgrounds of research and development in the field of HRV based on over 83 published articles. The collected literature has been divided into many sections so that new researchers do not face any difficulty for obtaining literature in this field.