Biochemical and Hematological Relationship with the Evaluation of Autonomic Dysfunction by Heart Rate Recovery in Patients with Asthma and Type 2 Diabetes

There are several methods to assess the function of the autonomic nervous system. Among them, heart rate recovery (HRR) is an accepted, easy, low-cost technique. Different pathological conditions have been related to the development of autonomic dysfunction. Our study aimed to evaluate the relationship between HRR and HRR-derived parameters in ambulatory patients with asthma or type 2 diabetes followed at the National Institutes of Health in Mexico City. A total of 78 participants, 50 women and, 28 men were enrolled; anthropometric, respiratory evaluations, and fasting blood samples were taken before participants performed a 6-min walking test (6MWT). Abnormal HRR was defined as a drop of ≤8 and ≤11 beats/min at 1 or 2 min and correlated negatively with basal oxygen saturation at 1 min. Heart rate at 1 min, correlated negatively with final oxygen saturation (p < 0.01). Statistically significant negative correlations were also observed between red cell count and white blood cell count and HOMA-IR with a p < 0.01. Since discrete hematological but significant changes correlated with HRR and HRR-derived parameters, we consider that these measures are helpful in clinical settings to identify subclinical autonomic dysfunction that permits us to prevent or anticipate chronic and fatal clinical outcomes.