Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Modulations in Preeclampsia

Background: Although the exact pathophysiology of preeclampsia is not well understood, autonomic nervous system imbalance is suggested as one of the main factors.

Aims: To investigate heart rate variability (HRV) and autonomic modulations in Sudanese pregnant women with preeclampsia.

Subjects And Methods: A case-control study (60 women in each arm) was conducted at Omdurman Maternity Hospital-Sudan, during the period from June to August, 2014. Cases were women presented with preeclampsia and healthy pregnant women were the controls. Studied groups were matched for important determinants of HRV. Natural logarithm (Ln) of total power (TP), high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF) and very low frequency (VLF) were used to determine HRV. Normalized low and high frequencies (LF Norm and HF Norm) were used to evaluate sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic modulations respectively.

Results: Patients with preeclampsia achieved significantly higher LF Norm [49.80 (16.25) vs. 44.55 (19.15), P = 0.044] and LnLF/HF [0.04 (0.68) vs. -0.28 (0.91), P = 0.023] readings, but lower HF Norm [49.08 (15.29) vs. 55.87 (19.56), P = 0.012], compared with healthy pregnant women. Although all other HRV measurements were higher in the patients with preeclampsia compared with the controls, only LnVLF [4.50 (1.19) vs. 4.01 (1.06), P = 0.017] and LnLF [4.01 (1.58) vs. 3.49 (1.23), P = 0.040] reached statistical significance.

Conclusion: The study adds further evidence for the dominant cardiac sympathetic modulations on patients with preeclampsia, probably secondary to parasympathetic withdrawal in this group. However, the higher LnVLF and LnLF readings achieved by preeclamptic women compared with the controls are unexpected in the view that augmented sympathetic modulations usually depresses all HRV parameters including these two measures.