Department of Cardiology, Xuzhou Children's Hospital, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2018 Feb;22(4):1102-1105. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_201802_14397.
We aimed to investigate the heart rate variability in children with myocarditis presenting with ventricular arrhythmias.
The study compared the characteristics of heart rate variability (HRV) among 67 children with viral myocarditis (VMC), presenting with (n=35) and without (n=32) ventricular arrhythmias and a control group of 30 healthy children.
Compared with the control group, the HRV time-domain indicators of children with VMC were significantly lower (p<0.05); also, the indicators of children with ventricular arrhythmias were significantly lower than those of children without ventricular arrhythmias (p<0.05). Equally, during both the lucid and sleep periods, the time-domain indicators of HRV were significantly lower in patients with VMC and arrhythmias than in either the control group (p<0.05) or the group with VMC but no ventricular arrhythmias (p<0.05).
We conclude that the HRV of children with VMC probably decreased because of impaired vagal nerve function, with ventricular arrhythmias developing only when the decrease was most significant. Thus, HRV can be a useful predictive indicator for ventricular arrhythmias in children with VMC.
研究心肌炎合并室性心律失常患儿的心率变异性。
本研究比较了 67 例病毒性心肌炎（VMC）患儿（伴发室性心律失常 35 例，无室性心律失常 32 例）与 30 例健康儿童的心率变异性（HRV）特征。
与对照组相比，VMC 患儿 HRV 的时域指标显著降低（p<0.05）；同时，伴发室性心律失常患儿的指标显著低于无室性心律失常患儿（p<0.05）。同样，在清醒和睡眠期间，VMC 伴发心律失常患儿的 HRV 时域指标均显著低于对照组（p<0.05）和 VMC 但无室性心律失常组（p<0.05）。
我们推断，VMC 患儿的 HRV 可能因迷走神经功能受损而降低，只有当迷走神经功能受损最明显时才会发生室性心律失常。因此，HRV 可作为预测 VMC 患儿室性心律失常的有用指标。
