Abstract
Cardiac autonomic dysfunction has been reported in patients with cerebral palsy (CP). The aim of this study was to assess the existing literature on heart rate variability (HRV) in pediatric patients with CP and a special attention was paid to the compliance of the studies with the current HRV assessment and interpretation guidelines. A systematic review was performed in PubMed, Web of Science, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) databases searched for English language publications from 1996 to 2019 using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms “heart rate variability” and “cerebral palsy” in conjunction with additional inclusion criteria: studies limited to humans in the age range of 0–18 years and empirical investigations. Out of 47 studies, 12 were included in the review. Pediatric patients with CP presented a significantly higher resting heart rate and reduced HRV, different autonomic responses to movement stimuli compared to children with normal development, but also reduced HRV parameters in the children dependent on adult assistance for mobility compared to those generally independent. None of the included studies contained the necessary details concerning RR intervals acquisition and HRV measurements as recommended by the guidelines. Authors of HRV studies should follow the methodological guidelines and recommendations on HRV measurement, because such an approach may allow a direct comparison of their results.
Highlights
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental condition starting in early childhood and lasting for the whole life
Detailed raw results reported in the included studies concerning heart rate (HR), time-domain, frequency-domain, and nonlinear heart rate variability (HRV) parameters are presented in Tables S1 and S2, respectively
Main results The group of children with cerebral palsy (CP) presented higher HF and LF values and lower LF/HF compared to the controls
Summary
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurodevelopmental condition starting in early childhood and lasting for the whole life. In patients with CP, motor disorders attributed to non-progressive anomalies in the developing fetal or infant brain are often accompanied by a range of additional disturbances, e.g., epilepsy, sensory, perceptive, cognitive, communicational, and behavioral problems [1]. Numerous studies have been performed to identify alterations in the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, which suggest that children and adolescents with CP present sympathovagal imbalance compared to peers with normal development [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. The brain injury affects parts of the ANS and impairs cardiovascular functioning, e.g., heart rate (HR) regulation [15,16,17,18], which in turn may lead to cardiovascular complications [19,20,21,22]. The overall regulation of the cardiovascular system is disturbed, which results in elevated blood pressure and HR
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
