Heritability of Ambulatory Heart Rate Variability

Abstract

Background-Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) is a prognostic factor for cardiac disease and cardiac mortality.Understanding the sources of individual differences in HRV may increase its diagnostic use and provide new angles for preventive therapy. To date, the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the variance in HRV has not been investigated during prolonged periods of ambulatory monitoring in a naturalistic setting. Methods and Results-In 772 healthy twins and singleton siblings, ambulatory ECG was recorded during 24 hours. Two time domain measures of HRV were used: the standard deviations of all normal-to-normal intervals across 5-minute segments (SDNN index) and the root mean square of successive differences between adjacent normal RR intervals (RMSSD). Multivariate genetic analyses across 4 periods of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night) yielded significant estimates for genetic contribution to the mean ambulatory SDNN index (ranging from 35% to 47%) and the mean ambulatory RMSSD (ranging from 40% to 48%). Conclusions-Ambulatory HRV measures are highly heritable traits that can be used to support genetic association and linkage studies in their search for genetic variation influencing cardiovascular disease risk.

Heart rate variability is related to training load variables in interval running exercises

“…Some of the most important factors are shortly discussed in the following paragraphs. A significant genetic contribution to HRV has been established in laboratory twin and family studies (Kupper et al 2004;Singh et al 1999;Uusitalo et al 2007). A genetic contribution of 13-39 % of resting HRV has been reported, increasing up to 51 % during exposure to mentally and emotionally demanding tasks.…”

“…A genetic contribution of 13-39 % of resting HRV has been reported, increasing up to 51 % during exposure to mentally and emotionally demanding tasks. An ambulatory 24 h recording revealed that the mean genetic contribution of SDNN and RMSSD varied from 35 to 47 % and from 40 to 48%, respec-tively (Kupper et al 2004). Martinmäki et al (2006b) investigated the intraindividual variation of HRV indices to measure modulation of vagal activity and found a large variation in the quantitative relationship between vagal component (high frequency power, HFP) of HRV and vagal effects on the heart.…”

Familial influences on basal salivary cortisol in an adult population

“…Furthermore, every 30 min blood pressure was recorded using a Spacelabs 90207 ambulatory blood pressure monitor (Redmont, Washington, USA). Results on cardiovascular measures have been published elsewhere (Kupper et al, 2004(Kupper et al, , 2005. Subjects wore the VU-AMS monitor the entire day and night until after awakening the next morning.…”

Alpha-adrenoceptor gene variants and autonomic nervous system function in a young healthy Japanese population

“…Short-term HRV analysis used in the present study is a highly reproducible method (Tarkiainen et al 2005) and is of significant clinical relevance (Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology 1996; Pumprla et al 2002). Therefore, HRV can be used to search for genetic variation influencing autonomic modulation and various related diseases including cardiac disease (Kupper et al 2004). When each a 1 -AR or a 2 -AR subtype-selective agent in humans is available, our understanding of the physiological and clinical importance of the a-AR polymorphisms will be further refined.…”