Sex differences in heart rate responses to postural provocations
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Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Sex differences are known in several facets of cardiac electrophysiology, mostly concerning myocardial repolarisation. In this study, heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) responses to postural provocations were compared in 175 and 176 healthy females and males, respectively (aged 33.1 ± 9.1 years). Two different postural provocative tests with position changes supine→sitting→standing→supine and supine→standing→sitting→supine (15-min standing, 10-min other positions) were performed up to 4 times in each subject. Heart rate and heart rate variability spectral indices were measured in 5-min windows before positional changes. At supine position, females had averaged heart rate approximately 5 beats per minute (bpm) faster than males and this sex difference was practically constant during the postural changes. In both sexes, change supine→sitting and supine→standing increased heart rate by approximately 10 and 30 bpm, respectively, with no statistical differences between the sex groups. At supine baseline, females had normalised high frequency components (nHF) of HRV approximately 7% larger compared to males (p < 0.001). While the same difference in nHF was found at sitting, the change to standing position lead to significantly larger nHF reduction in females compared to males (mean changes 22.5 vs 17.2%, p < 0.001). This shows that despite similar heart rate increase, females respond to standing by more substantial shifts in cardiac sympatho-vagal modulations. This makes it plausible to speculate that the differences in autonomic reactions to stress contribute to the known sex-differences in psychosocial responses to stressful situations and to the known difference in susceptibility to ventricular fibrillation between females and males.
Date Issued
2019-12-15
Date Acceptance
2019-09-24
Citation
International Journal of Cardiology, 2019, 297, pp.126-134
ISSN
0167-5273
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
126
End Page
134
Journal / Book Title
International Journal of Cardiology
Volume
297
Copyright Statement
©2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Sponsor
British Heart Foundation
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016752731933952X?via%3Dihub
Grant Number
NH/16/2/32499
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Cardiac & Cardiovascular Systems
Cardiovascular System & Cardiology
Sex differences
Postural changes
Heart rate
Heart rate variability
Autonomic modulations
Autonomic responsiveness
Responses to stress
LONG-QT SYNDROME
RATE-VARIABILITY
GENDER
RISK
POPULATION
STRESS
WOMEN
CYCLE
AGE
Autonomic modulations
Autonomic responsiveness
Heart rate
Heart rate variability
Postural changes
Responses to stress
Sex differences
Cardiovascular System & Hematology
1102 Cardiorespiratory Medicine and Haematology
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2019-10-07