The Prognostic Correlation of Heart rate variability and body weight status in liver cancer patients

Abstract

Background Weight status play an important role in the evolution and prognosis of cancer patients; however alterations of autonomic nervous system (ANS) caused by cancer may be the associated symptoms in cancer-related weight change. Objective The aim of this study is to identify the influence of weight status on ANS and determine whether ANS can be used as an index for early detection and prediction of weight changes in liver cancer patients with HRV. Methods We conducted a retrospective analysis of clinical data for newly diagnosed liver cancer from 2017 to 2022 in China. The authors conducted clinical and ECG data of liver cancer with special emphasis on advances ECG and the BMI aspect. Results Both BMI and KPS were lower in the liver cancer group compared to benign tumor patients and healthy controls (p ≤ 0.001). Liver cancer patients were more likely to have a history of diabetes (p = 0.005) and hepatitis B virus infection (p ≤ 0.001) compared to non-liver cancer patients. Moreover, the HRV indices and variations remained low in liver cancer patients Additionally, the mean average levels of SDNN and VLF bands in liver cancer remained significantly low (p ≤ 0.005). The results reveal that a lower BMI, lower VLF index, together with history of HBV infection positively correlated in liver cancer patients. The study reveals that HRV indices is associated with BMI in liver cancer patients with lesser body weight. As predicted, the LF and LF/VLF scores had correlation with lower BMI in the liver cancer patients (p < 0.05). Conclusion In liver cancer patients, decreased HRV was associated with a lower BMI independent of other con-founders. The role of HRV as a potential index for predicting cancer-related weight loss and improving the survival time of liver cancer patients are promising but require further validation in future studies.