Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine if heart rate variability (HRV) showed any changes in patients with newly diagnosed epilepsy in comparison with controls. Sixty‐five patients with epilepsy (38 males and 27 females), aged 30–50 years, who had never previously received treatment with antiepileptic drugs were eligible for inclusion in this study. Resting electrocardiogram (ECG) at spontaneous respiration was recorded for 5 min in supine position. Time‐domain analysis, frequency‐domain analysis, and Poincare plot of HRV were recorded from ECG. In time‐domain measures, the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between adjacent RR intervals (RMSSD) and percentage of consecutive RR intervals that differ by more than 50 msec (pNN50) were significantly less in patients with epilepsy. In frequency‐domain measures, high frequency [(HF) msec2], HF (nu), and low frequency [LF (msec2)] were significantly less in patients with epilepsy while LF (nu) and LF/HF were significantly high in patients with epilepsy. In Poincare plot, standard deviation perpendicular to line of Poincare plot (SD1) and standard deviation along the line of entity in Poincare plot (SD2) were significantly less in patients with epilepsy. Our results suggest that epileptic patients have an impact on the cardiac autonomic function as measured by HRV.
Highlights
Epilepsy, the tendency to have recurrent unprovoked seizures, is the most common serious neurological disorder
Physiological Reports published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society
Diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and respiratory rate were significantly higher in patients with epilepsy
Summary
The tendency to have recurrent unprovoked seizures, is the most common serious neurological disorder. The mortality rate among individuals with epilepsy is two to three times higher than among the general population (Baker et al 1997; Annegers et al 1998). Autonomic disturbance is a common feature of many seizure types, the signs of autonomic nervous system dysfunction are often overshadowed by the more apparent motor and higher cerebral effects of seizures (Ansakorpi et al 2000). Partial and generalized seizures often affect autonomic function during seizures as well as during the interictal and postictal periods. Autonomic dysfunction during or after seizures may cause cardiac changes such as cardiac arrhythmias that contribute to sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (Devinsky 2004)
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