Cardiac autonomic function in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with and without ventricular tachycardia.

Xingde Wang; Zhaohua Jiang; Bin Chen; Li Zhou; Zhibin Kong; Sheng Zuo; Hua Liu; Shaojun Yin; Wang, Xingde; Jiang, Zhaohua; Chen, Bin; Zhou, Li; Kong, Zhibin; Zuo, Sheng; Liu, Hua; Yin, Shaojun

Background: Autonomic dysfunction in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may increase the risks of arrhythmia and sudden death. We studied cardiac autonomic function in patients with acute exacerbation of COPD (AECOPD).Methods: Patients with AECOPD were classified into ventricular tachycardia (VT) and non-VT groups according to the presence or absence of VT. The following parameters derived from 24-h Holter monitoring were compared between groups: average heart rate, heart rate deceleration capacity (DC), heart rate acceleration capacity (AC), standard deviation of normal RR intervals (SDNN), standard deviation of average RR interval in 5-min segments (SDANN), root mean square of standard deviations of differences between adjacent normal RR intervals (rMSSD), low-frequency power (LF), high-frequency power (HF) and LF/HF ratio.Results: Seventy patients were included, 22 in the VT group and 48 in the non-VT group. The groups had similar clinical characteristics (except for more common amiodarone use in the VT group, P Conclusions: DC decreased and AC increased in patients with AECOPD and VT, reflecting an imbalance in autonomic regulation of the heart that might increase the risk of sudden death.

CHINA; OBSTRUCTIVE lung diseases; VENTRICULAR tachycardia; AUTONOMIC nervous system; DISEASE exacerbation; ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY; AMBULATORY electrocardiography; COMPARATIVE studies; HEART; HEART beat; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; RESEARCH; EVALUATION research; RETROSPECTIVE studies; ACUTE diseases; DISEASE progression; DISEASE complications

BMC Pulmonary Medicine, 2016, Vol 16, p1

1471-2466

Academic Journal

10.1186/s12890-016-0287-0