A novel index of sympathovagal balance from independent component analysis of heart rate and blood pressure variability: performance in patients with carotid stenting and in the EuroBavar data set.

The authors applied independent component analysis to oscillations of heart rate and blood pressure and obtained a new index of sympathovagal balance. The performance of this index was tested in patients with carotid artery stenting and in the EuroBavar data set according to the following criteria: (1) the index should vary similarly among subjects in response to different autonomic conditions; (2) the variability in the index among subjects exposed to the same autonomic conditions should be small; and (3) the response of the index to various autonomic conditions should reflect the underlying changes in the physiological state and have a meaningful interpretation. The new index from independent component analysis better fulfilled the criteria than the commonly used sympathovagal index, the ratio of low-to-high frequency spectra power of heart rate variability, and had higher discrimination power in distinguishing the autonomic status of the patients who had undergone carotid artery stenting from that of the control subjects.