Association between Frequency Domain Heart Rate Variability and Unplanned Readmission to Hospital in Geriatric Patients

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Malcolm Koo¹  Jui-Kun Chiang²  Chin-Hua Fu³  Terry BJ Kuo⁴ 

[1] Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Canada;Department of Family Medicine, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan;Department of Biotechnology, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan;Department of Neurology, Buddhist Taichung Tzu Chi General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan;Medical school, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan;Institute of Brain Science, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan;

关键词: Heart Rate Variability;    Geriatric Patient;    Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia;    Heart Rate Variability Analysis;    High Frequency Power;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-11-137

 received in 2010-08-18, accepted in 2011-02-27,  发布年份 2011

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAn accurate prediction of unplanned readmission (UR) after discharge from hospital can facilitate physician's decision making processes for providing better quality of care in geriatric patients. The objective of this study was to explore the association of cardiac autonomic functions as measured by frequency domain heart rate variability (HRV) and 14-day UR in geriatric patients.MethodsPatients admitted to the geriatric ward of a regional hospital in Chiayi county in Taiwan were followed prospectively from July 2006 to June 2007. Those with invasive tubes and those who were heavy smokers, heavy alcohol drinkers, on medications that might influence HRV, or previously admitted to the hospital within 30 days were excluded. Cardiac autonomic functions were evaluated by frequency domain indices of HRV. Multiple logistic regression was used to assess the association between UR and HRV indices adjusted for age and length of hospitalization.ResultsA total of 78 patients met the inclusion criteria and 15 of them were readmitted within 14 days after discharge. The risk of UR was significantly higher in patients with lower levels of total power (OR = 1.39; 95% CI = 1.04-2.00), low frequency power (LF) (OR = 1.22; 95% CI = 1.03-1.49), high frequency power (HF) (OR = 1.27; 95% CI = 1.02-1.64), and lower ratios of low frequency power to high frequency power (LF/HF ratio) (OR = 1.96; 95% CI = 1.07-3.84).ConclusionThis is the first study to evaluate the association between frequency domain heart rate variability and the risk of UR in geriatric patients. Frequency domain heart rate variability indices measured on admission were significantly associated with increased risk of UR in geriatric patients. Additional studies are required to confirm the value and feasibility of using HRV indices on admission as a non-invasive tool to assist the prediction of UR in geriatric patients.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Chiang et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2011. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.