Heart Rate Variability in Adult Obese Individuals

Obesity, an evolving metabolic disease, has becomeone of the common risk factors for ailments like Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus and Myocardial Infarction. Autonomic imbalance is one of the pathways to such increased morbidity and mortality. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) analysis is a non invasive research tool toassess the cardiovascular autonomic function. Although many methods are there to study the relationship between obesity and autonomic function, HRV plays an easy, simple, non invasive and effective method to study. We attempted to study the cardiovascular autonomic function in obese individuals using HRV as a measure of index. Heart Rate Variability analysis at supine rest in obese individuals were compared with age and gender matched non-obese ECG (Lead II) was acquired for 5 minutes at supine position with normal breath rate of 12-16/min and instantaneous RR intervals were analysed using Finland software for HRV. Both time and frequency domain measures were taken for analysis. Obese individuals found to have sympathovagal imbalance characterized by depressed para sympathetic tone and increased sympathetic activity.