Study of Heart Rate Variability in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Aim. To study heart rate variability (HRV) in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in relation to: blood oxygen saturation level, parameters of respiratory function (RPF), Nt – proBNP concentration in blood plasma. Materials and methods. We examined 128 outpatients of both sexes. The patients’ age ranged from 45 to 70 years. Group 1 – main (60 patients) with CHF of ischemic genesis of NYHA functional class II – III and GOLD COPD of I – III degree of airflow restriction (GOLD 2019 classification) in the stage of stable remission, group 2 – control group (63 patients), with isolated CHF. All patients with CHF, who were included in the study, had myocardial infarction (AMI) from 1 to 5 years ago. There were no statistically significant differences in the severity of CHF between groups 1 and 2. Results. In patients with CHF and COPD, in contrast to patients with isolated CHF, a significant prevalence of the frequency of occurrence of the hypersympathicotonic type of autonomic regulation was revealed. Significantly lower indicators of heart rate variability were in the group of patients with concomitant COPD in comparison with patients with isolated CHF. Statistically significant correlations were revealed between HRV parameters and RPF, parameters of blood oxygen saturation level, NT-proBNP concentration in blood. Multivariate regression analysis showed a significant dependence of HRV parameters on the parameters of HRV and the concentration of NT-proBNP in the blood in the group of patients with CHF and COPD.