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The impact of menstrual cycle phase on cardiac autonomic regulation |
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| Authors: | Paula S Mckinley Arlene R King Peter A Shapiro Iordan Slavov Yixin Fang Ivy S Chen Larry D Jamner and Richard P Sloan |
| Institution: | Division of Behavioral Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA; Division of Consultation/Liaison Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA; Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine, California, USA |
| Abstract: | This study investigated menstrual cycle phase differences in heart rate (HR) and RR interval variability (RRV) in 49 healthy, premenopausal, eumenorrheic women (age 30.2±6.2 years). HR and RRV were computed from ambulatory 24-h electrocardiogram, collected for up to 6 days, with at least 1 day each during early to midfollicular and midluteal menstrual phases. Phase effects on HR and RRV were assessed using linear mixed effects models with a random intercept to account for the correlation of observations within each subject as well as intrasubject variation. During follicular phase monitoring, women had significantly lower average HR (−2.33 bpm), and higher standard deviation, the root mean squared successive difference, and high frequency (0.04–0.15 Hz) and low frequency (0.15–0.40 Hz) RRV than during the luteal phase. These results provide strong support for the influence of menstrual phase on cardiac autonomic regulation in premenopausal women. |
| Keywords: | Menstrual cycle Normal volunteers Heart rate Autonomic regulation Heart rate variability |