Yılmaz Mücahid, Mirzaoğlu Çetin
Department of Cardiology, Elazığ Fethi Sekin City Hospital, University of Health Sciences, 23280 Elazığ, Turkey.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2025 Mar 5;15(5):621. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics15050621.
Heart rate turbulence (HRT) is a non-invasive technique that can be used to evaluate autonomic nervous system (ANS) function and cardiac arrhythmia. The objective of this study is to investigate whether COVID-19 can lead to long-term blunted HRT following recovery. This retrospective cohort study included 253 individuals with a confirmed history of COVID-19, referred to as the recovered COVID-19 group, along with 315 healthy participants who had no history of the virus. The recovered COVID-19 group was categorized into three subgroups based on their chest CT severity scores. The HRT analyses were obtained from a 24-h electrocardiography-Holter recording. This study revealed that the HRT onset value was elevated in the recovered COVID-19 group, while the HRT slope value showed a significant decrease when compared to the control group. Correlation analyses indicated a positive relationship between the chest CT severity score and HRT onset, whereas a negative correlation was observed between the chest CT severity score and HRT slope. Regression analyses identified recovery from severe COVID-19, chest CT severity score, hypertension (HT), and smoking as independent predictors of both abnormal HRT onset and the existence of an abnormal HRT slope. Individuals who have recovered from severe COVID-19 are expected to encounter a permanent blunting of HRT, which is regarded as a significant indicator of an increased risk of ventricular arrhythmias and impaired autonomic nervous system (ANS) function. Recovered severe COVID-19 individuals should be carefully evaluated for HRT with 24-h ECG-Holter.
心率震荡（HRT）是一种可用于评估自主神经系统（ANS）功能和心律失常的非侵入性技术。本研究的目的是调查新冠病毒感染康复后是否会导致长期的HRT减弱。这项回顾性队列研究纳入了253名确诊有新冠病毒感染史的个体，称为新冠康复组，以及315名无该病毒感染史的健康参与者。新冠康复组根据胸部CT严重程度评分分为三个亚组。HRT分析通过24小时心电图动态监测记录获得。本研究显示，新冠康复组的HRT起始值升高，而与对照组相比，HRT斜率值显著降低。相关性分析表明，胸部CT严重程度评分与HRT起始值呈正相关，而胸部CT严重程度评分与HRT斜率呈负相关。回归分析确定，从重症新冠病毒感染中康复、胸部CT严重程度评分、高血压（HT）和吸烟是HRT起始异常和HRT斜率异常存在的独立预测因素。从重症新冠病毒感染中康复的个体预计会出现永久性的HRT减弱，这被视为室性心律失常风险增加和自主神经系统（ANS）功能受损的重要指标。对于从重症新冠病毒感染中康复的个体，应使用24小时心电图动态监测对HRT进行仔细评估。
