Assessment of Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Involvement in Systemic Sclerosis via Exercise Heart Rate Recovery

作者：Karakulak Ugur Nadir^*; Okutucu Sercan; Sahiner Levent; Maharjan Naresh; Aladag Elifcan; Akdogan Ali; Kilic Levent; Kaya Ergun Baris; Aytemir Kudret; Tokgozoglu Lale

来源：Medical Principles and Practice, 2015, 24(1): 17-22.

DOI：10.1159/000368359

• Cardiac autonomic dysfunction
• Heart rate recovery
• Scleroderma

Objective: To assess exercise heart rate recovery (HRR) indices in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) for an assessment of their cardiac autonomic function. Subjects and Methods: Thirty-five patients with diffuse or limited SSc and 35 healthy controls were enrolled. All subjects underwent exercise testing and transthoracic echocardiography. The HRR indices were calculated by subtracting the first- (HRR1), second- (HRR2) and third-minute (HRR3) heart rates from the maximal heart rate. Results: The SSc and control groups were similar in age (45.2 +/- 11.6 vs. 43.9 +/- 10.0 years), had identical gender ratios (31 female/4 male in both groups) and similar left ventricular ejection fraction (66.5 +/- 5.1 vs. 67.7 +/- 5.9%). The mean HRR1 (21.8 +/- 4.4 vs. 27.7 +/- 4.3 bpm, p = 0.001), HRR2 (43.8 +/- 6.3 vs. 47.6 +/- 4.4 bpm, p = 0.004) and HRR3 (58.8 +/- 10.3 vs. 63.6 +/- 7.3 bpm, p = 0.031) values were significantly lower in the SSc group than in the healthy controls. HRR indices were similar in the limited and diffuse SSc subgroups. Conclusions: The patients with SSc had lower HRR indices than normal subjects. Cardiac autonomic functions might be involved in SSc, even in patients without cardiac symptoms.

• 出版日期2015