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Heart rate variability is significantly reduced in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy secondary to hypertension or aortic valve disease. A continuous inverse relation exists between heart rate variability and left ventricular mass index. Impaired cardiac autonomic function in left ventricular hypertrophy may contribute to the mechanism of sudden death.

We introduced a new index of HRV, which is easy for computation, robust, reproducible, easy to understand, and may overcome the limitations that belong to the standard HRV measures. This index, named HRV fraction, by combining magnitude, distribution, and heart-rate influences, might become a clinically useful index of global HRV.