Impaired Vagal Activity in Long-COVID-19 Patients

Long-COVID-19 refers to the signs and symptoms that continue or develop after the “acute COVID-19” phase. These patients have an increased risk of multiorgan dysfunction, readmission, and mortality. In Long-COVID-19 patients, it is possible to detect a persistent increase in D-Dimer, NT-ProBNP, and autonomic nervous system dysfunction. To verify the dysautonomia hypothesis in Long-COVID-19 patients, we studied heart rate variability using 12-lead 24-h ECG monitoring in 30 Long-COVID-19 patients and 20 No-COVID patients. Power spectral analysis of heart rate variability was lower in Long-COVID-19 patients both for total power (7.46 ± 0.5 vs. 8.08 ± 0.6; p < 0.0001; Cohens-d = 1.12) and for the VLF (6.84 ± 0.8 vs. 7.66 ± 0.6; p < 0.0001; Cohens-d = 1.16) and HF (4.65 ± 0.9 vs. 5.33 ± 0.9; p = 0.015; Cohens-d = 0.76) components. The LF/HF ratio was significantly higher in Long-COVID-19 patients (1.46 ± 0.27 vs. 1.23 ± 0.13; p = 0.001; Cohens-d = 1.09). On multivariable analysis, Long-COVID-19 is significantly correlated with D-dimer (standardized β-coefficient = 0.259), NT-ProBNP (standardized β-coefficient = 0.281), HF component of spectral analysis (standardized β-coefficient = 0.696), and LF/HF ratio (standardized β-coefficient = 0.820). Dysautonomia may explain the persistent symptoms in Long COVID-19 patients. The persistence of a procoagulative state and an elevated myocardial strain could explain vagal impairment in these patients. In Long-COVID-19 patients, impaired vagal activity, persistent increases of NT-ProBNP, and a prothrombotic state require careful monitoring and appropriate intervention.     

围绝经期综合征患者心率变异性与中医辨证分型关系的探索

目的研究心率变异性(HRV)与围绝经期综合征中医辨证分型的关系,探索中医证的客观化。方法通过对87例围绝经期综合征患者与32例正常对照组HRV的频域分析,观察、分析肝肾阴虚型、阴虚阳亢型、气阴两虚型围绝经期综合征与正常对照组HRV各指标的差异。结果围绝经期综合征患者三型之间TP、VLF、LF的差异显著,总的趋势从肝肾阴虚型、阴虚阳亢型、气阴两虚型依次降低(P<0.05,P<0.01);气阴两虚型较其他两型TP、VLF、LF、HF、LF/HF比值、VLF/HF比值、SD、LFnorm降低,HF、HFnorm升高,差异显著(P<0.05,P<0.01);肝肾阴虚型与正常对照组间HRV差异不显著(P>0.05);结论HRV的部分指标可能为围绝经期综合征中医辨证分型的客观化提供参考。     

糖尿病患者心率变异的研究

对30例2型糖尿病患者,25例对照者进行了心率变异性（HRV）的检测。结果表明：糖尿病患者中存在明显的HRV异常,其平均心率增快,平均R－R间期、平均R－R间期标准差、平均R－R间期变异系数及R－R间期大于50ms百分率均明显降低;心率能谱分析中,低频断和高频断的能量均降低,总的趋向是交感神经活动增强．迷走神经作用减弱。表明糖尿病患者HRV变小,自主神经系统活动及心血管系统功能异常。HRV为监测糖尿病患者植物神经功能动态改变提供了一种新的手段。     

曲美他嗪对非ST段抬高急性冠脉综合征患者心肌缺血和心率变异的影响

目的:观察曲美他嗪对非ST段抬高的急性冠脉综合症(NSTEACS)患者疗效及心率变异(HRV)的影响,评价其心肌保护作用。方法:选择NSTEACS患者74例,随机分为两组:一组使用阿司匹林、单硝酸异山梨酯、氟伐他汀、美托洛尔等常规治疗,另一组在常规治疗基础上加用曲美他嗪治疗。总观察疗程为8周,观察患者用药前后心率、血压、胸痛发作频率及持续时间、硝酸甘油每天含服次数、心肌缺血的范围及程度以及24 h动态心电图变化,进行疗效评定和HRV分析。结果:曲美他嗪组(有效率94.4%,显效率72.2%),疗效明显优于常规治疗组(有效率65.8%,显效率36.8%)(P<0.05或P<0.01)。SDNN、SDANN、rMSSD、PNN50均升高,低频谱功率(LF)、低频/高频谱功率比值(LF/HF)均降低,有统计学差异(P均<0.05)。高频谱功率(HF)升高,但无统计学差异(P<0.05)。结论:曲美他嗪能有效改善NSTEACS患者心肌缺血及HRV。     

2008年天津市部分介入放射工作人员个人剂量的监测与评价

目的了解天津市从事介入放射医疗工作人员职业性外照射的个人剂量情况。方法选取天津市4所医院的放射工作者72人,采用热释光监测方法,结合相关标准进行评价分析。结果4所医院的介入放射工作人员中,人均年剂量分别为2.08、3.73、0.65和0.64mSv。全体人均年剂量为2.30mSv。其中61人低于5mSv,占总数的84.7%;9人高于5mSv而低于10mSv,占总数的12.5%;2人高于10mSv而低于20mSv,占总数的2.8%。全部72人均不超过20mSv。结论部分放射工作人员的个人剂量监测结果超过了标准规定的限值。需要加强对天津市的介入放射学工作人员的放射防护管理,降低个人剂量水平。     

Cardiac sympathetic-vagal activity initiates a functional brain–body response to emotional arousal

A century-long debate on bodily states and emotions persists. While the involvement of bodily activity in emotion physiology is widely recognized, the specificity and causal role of such activity related to brain dynamics has not yet been demonstrated. We hypothesize that the peripheral neural control on cardiovascular activity prompts and sustains brain dynamics during an emotional experience, so these afferent inputs are processed by the brain by triggering a concurrent efferent information transfer to the body. To this end, we investigated the functional brain–heart interplay under emotion elicitation in publicly available data from 62 healthy subjects using a computational model based on synthetic data generation of electroencephalography and electrocardiography signals. Our findings show that sympathovagal activity plays a leading and causal role in initiating the emotional response, in which ascending modulations from vagal activity precede neural dynamics and correlate to the reported level of arousal. The subsequent dynamic interplay observed between the central and autonomic nervous systems sustains the processing of emotional arousal. These findings should be particularly revealing for the psychophysiology and neuroscience of emotions.

“What Is an Emotion?” by William James (1), published more than a century ago, started the scientific debate on the nature of emotions. However, a shared and definitive theory of emotions is not in place yet, and the very definition of emotions and their nature is still a matter of debate. While more “classical” theories point to emotions as “the functional states of the brain that provide causal explanations of certain complex behaviors—like evading a predator or attacking prey” (2), other theories suggest how they are constructions of the world, not reactions to it (3). Namely, emotions are internal states constructed on the basis of previous experiences as predictive schemes to react to external stimuli.The role of bodily activity in emotions is often questioned. Despite the vast literature showing bodily correlates with emotions, a long-lasting debate about the relationship between bodily states and emotions persists (4). For instance, a feeling is defined as the subjective metarepresentation and labeling of physiological changes (such as an increase in heart rate, the increase of blood pressure, or changes in peristalsis) (5) that are strictly related to the body state on the one hand and to emotions on the other. To this extent, emotions are complex psychological phenomena in which feelings are interpreted and labeled. In a particular psychopathological condition known as alexithymia, individuals experience difficulties in experiencing and understanding emotions to various degrees (6). Indeed, some of these patients can perceive the physical changes connected to a feeling but are unable to label it as emotion, so that emotional experience is described only as its physical counterpart [e.g., described an experience as “I have my heart beating too fast” instead of “I’m fearful” (7)]. From a biological point of view the way in which physical changes become feelings and emotions is based on the interplay between the central and the autonomic nervous systems.The central nervous system (CNS) communicates with the autonomic nervous system (ANS) through interoceptive neural circuits that contribute to physiological functions beyond homeostatic control, from the emotional experience and the genesis of feelings (8) to decision making (9, 10). The debate about the role of the ANS in emotions can be condensed into two views: specificity or causation (4). The specificity view is related to the James–Lange theory, which states that bodily responses precede emotions’ central processing, meaning that bodily states would be a response to the environment, followed by an interpretation carried out by the CNS that would result in the feeling felt. However, causation theories represent an updated view of the James–Lange theory, suggesting that peripheral changes influence the conscious emotional experience; from a biological point of view this may reflect the fact that autonomic nervous signals from the body do influence perceptual activity in the brain (11, 12). In this regard, subjective perception may be influenced or shaped by ascending communication from visceral inputs to the brain (13–15).Functional models of CNS and ANS interplay have described bidirectional dynamics in emotions (16–18). In particular, the functional brain–heart interplay (BHI) involves brain structures that comprise the central autonomic network (CAN), which has been described as being in charge of autonomic control (19, 20). Moreover, the default mode network (DMN) has been found to be involved in autonomic control (21) and tasks of self-related cognition and interoception (22, 23), suggesting that the DMN participates in both ascending and descending communications with the heart. Finally, the constructed emotion theory suggests how DMN together with other intrinsic networks is crucial in the genesis of emotion and emotional experience (3).Psychophysiological studies have uncovered several correlates of different autonomic signals in the brain during emotional experiences (24–27). To understand these correlations and the functional interactions between the heart and brain, various signal processing methods have been proposed to investigate functional BHI through noninvasive recordings (28). The study of emotions using these methods comprises the analysis of heartbeat-evoked potentials (29), nonlinear couplings (30), and information transfer modeling (31). However, the causative role of bodily inputs remains unknown (4) and, more specifically, the temporal and causal links between cortical and peripheral neural dynamics in both ascending and descending directions, i.e., from the brain to the body and from the body to the brain, are still to be clarified.In this study, we take a step forward in answering these scientific questions and investigate whether peripheral neural dynamics play a causal role in the genesis of emotions. We applied a mathematical model of functional BHI based on synthetic data generation (SDG) (32), estimating the directionality of the functional interplay using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) recordings gathered from healthy subjects undergoing emotion elicitations with video clips, the publicly available DEAP and MAHNOB datasets (33, 34). ECG series were analyzed to derive heart-rate variability (HRV) series, which result from the concurrent activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic (vagal) branches of the ANS acting to regulate the heartbeat. We hypothesize that, from a neurobiological point of view, feelings and subsequent emotional experiences arise from the mutual interplay between brain and body, particularly in which the CNS integrates the afferent ANS information outflow, namely from-heart-to-brain interplay, which actually triggers a cascade of cortical neural activations that, in turn, modulate directed neural control onto the heart, namely from brain-to-heart interplay.     

Heart rate variability,exercise capacity and levels of daily physical activity in children and adolescents with mild-to-moderate cystic fibrosis

Background:Autonomic nervous system balance is altered in cystic fibrosis (CF), although its influence on physical fitness has been poorly explored.Objective:This study aimed to evaluate the association of heart rate variability (HRV) with exercise capacity and levels of daily physical activity in children and adolescents with mild-to-moderate CF.Methods:A cross-sectional study including individuals with CF aged 6–18 years, not under CFTR modulator therapy, was performed. Sociodemographic (age, sex) and clinical information (airway colonization, pancreatic insufficiency, and genotyping) were collected. In addition, exercise capacity (modified shuttle test — MST), lung function (spirometry), body composition (bioimpedance), levels of daily physical activity (5-day accelerometer), and HRV (both at rest and during the MST) were evaluated.Results:30 individuals (20 females) aged 11.2±3.7 years, mean FEV162.8±27.6%, were included. A sympathovagal balance (LF/HF) increase (p<0.001) during the MST was shown, indicating a predominance of sympathetic modulation. The standard deviation of all RR intervals (SDNN) and the high frequency (HF) index during exercise correlated significantly with FEV₁ (r=0.45, p=0.01 and r=0.46, p=0.01; respectively). MST distance also correlated positively and significantly with SDNN (r=0.43, p=0.01), square root of the mean of the sums of squares of frequencies between RR intervals greater than 50 ms — RMSSD (r=0.53, p<0.01), low frequency — LF (r=0.48, p<0.01), HF (r=0.64, p<0.01), dispersion of points perpendicular to the short-term identity line — SD1 (r=0.40, p=0.02) and negatively with LF/HF (r=−0.57, p<0.01). Regarding daily physical activity, SDNN at rest (r=0.37, p=0.04) and exercise (r=0.41, p=0.02) showed positive correlations with time in moderate-to-vigorous activities. When normalizing the SDNN and classifying individuals as normal or altered, those presenting altered SDNN showed poorest FEV₁ (p=0.001) and lower exercise capacity (p=0.027).Conclusion:HRV correlates with lung function, exercise capacity and levels of daily physical activity in children and adolescents with CF. The study highlights the influence of CF on autonomic function and suggests HRV measurement as an easy tool to be used in clinical settings as an alternative marker to monitor CF individuals.