| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
1 Department of Physiology, 2 Institute of Neuroscience, and 3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Tzu Chi College of Medicine and Humanities, Hualien 970, Taiwan, Republic of China
Previous work from our laboratory using heart rate variability (HRV) has demonstrated that women before menopause have a more dominant parasympathetic and less effective sympathetic regulations of heart rate compared with men. Because it is still not clear whether normal or preeclamptic pregnancy coincides with alternations in the autonomic functions, we evaluated the changes of HRV in 17 nonpregnant, 17 normotensive pregnant, and 11 preeclamptic women who were clinically diagnosed without history of diabetic neuropathy, cardiac arrhythmia, and other cardiovascular diseases. Frequency-domain analysis of short-term, stationary R-R intervals was performed to evaluate the total variance, low-frequency power (LF; 0.04-0.15 Hz), high-frequency power (HF; 0.15-0.40 Hz), ratio of LF to HF (LF/HF), and LF in normalized units (LF%). Natural logarithm transformation was applied to variance, LF, HF, and LF/HF for the adjustment of the skewness of distribution. We found that the normal pregnant group had a lower R-R value and HF but had a higher LF/HF and LF% compared with the nonpregnant group. The preeclamptic group had lower HF but higher LF/HF compared with either the normal pregnant or nonpregnant group. Our results suggest that normal pregnancy is associated with a facilitation of sympathetic regulation and an attenuation of parasympathetic influence of heart rate, and such alterations are enhanced in preeclamptic pregnancy.
heart rate variability; power spectral analysis; parasympathetic activity; sympathovagal balance
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  E. Kajantie, R. Kaaja, O. Ylikorkala, S. Andersson, and H. Laivouri Adiponectin Concentrations in Maternal Serum: Elevated in Preeclampsis But Unrelated to Insulin Sensitivity Reproductive Sciences, September 1, 2005; 12(6): 433 - 439. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. C. Liu, T. B. J. Kuo, and C. C. H. Yang Effects of estrogen on gender-related autonomic differences in humans Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, November 1, 2003; 285(5): H2188 - H2193. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. B. J. Kuo and C. C. H. Yang Sexual dimorphism in the complexity of cardiac pacemaker activity Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, October 1, 2002; 283(4): H1695 - H1702. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 J. P. Greenwood, E. M. Scott, J. B. Stoker, J. J. Walker, and D. A.S.G. Mary Sympathetic Neural Mechanisms in Normal and Hypertensive Pregnancy in Humans Circulation, October 30, 2001; 104(18): 2200 - 2204. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 C. R. Rosenfeld Mechanisms regulating angiotensin II responsiveness by the uteroplacental circulation Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, October 1, 2001; 281(4): R1025 - R1040. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Visit Other APS Journals Online |
