Eureka! Institutional Repository

Aim: The aim of the present study is to estimate the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in patients with diabetes Mellitus (DM) and to correlate this with body mass index (BMI) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Methods: A total of 20 patients with DM were studied, along with 20 healthy controls with no DM during the period March-July 2016. After personal medical history had been taken for each of the patients and controls, the weight, height and waist circumference were measured. Subsequently, the posture hypotension was measured, and a Holter monitor was used for each of the patients and the controls. The parameters of HRV that were measured are the SDNN, SDANN, VLF, LF and HF and the time and frequency domain analysis was used for their evaluation. Descriptive statistics and statistical analysis of the data acquired was performed using the SPSS (V20) for Windows. Results: Evaluation of HRv parameters in patients with DM and controls revealed a statistically significant difference between the two groups for all the HRV parameters (p<0.05 for all), indicating that patients with DM appear to have significantly lower HRV compared with healthy controls. Additionally, all subjects were divided into two groups according to their BMI (BMI<30 and BMI>30) and HRV parameter evaluation was performed. Statistical analysis showed statistically significant differences for all HRV parameters apart from LF between the two groups (p<0.05). The correlation of their values was a tendency for a negative correlation between the values of BMI and the values of all HRV parameters, with a statistically significant negative correlation for SDNN, SDANN and HF (p<0.05). Finally, patients were divided into two groups according to the values of HbA1c (HbA1c<7 and HbA1c>7), and the HRV parameters were evaluated for the two groups. The statistical analysis revealed statistically significant difference only for the parameter SDANN between the two groups, while there was a tendency for the correlation of HbA1c and SDNN and SDAN (p<0.5). Conclusion: The main conclusion arising from the present study is that ΒΜΙ and HbA1c levels correlates with HRV and its functional parameters, despite the fact that the correlation between the actual values was not strong. Possible explanation for this paradox is the relatively small differences on BMI ( all the participants were either overweight or obese) and the adequate serum glucose control for all groups.