Speed of heart rate changes during postural provocations in children and adolescents
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Heart rate is under constant autonomic influence but the development of the influence in children is not fully understood. Continuous electrocardiograms were obtained in 1045 healthy school-age children (550 females) during postural provocations with body position changes between supine, sitting, standing, supine, standing, sitting and supine (in this order), 10 min in each position with position changes within 20 s. Heart rate was measured in each position and speed of heart rate changes between positions were assessed by regressions of rates versus timing of individual cardiac cycles. Supine heart rate was gradually decreasing with age: 82.32 ± 9.92, 74.33 ± 9.79, 67.43 ± 9.45 beats per minute (bpm) in tertile age groups < 11, 11–15, > 15 years, respectively (p < 0.0001), with no significant sex difference. Averaged speed of heart rate changes differed little between sexes and age groups but was significantly faster during rate deceleration than acceleration (e.g., supine ↔ standing: 2.99 ± 1.02 vs. 2.57 ± 0.68 bpm/s, p < 0.0001). The study suggests that in children, vagal heart rate control does not noticeably change between ages of approximately 6–19 years. The gradual resting heart rate decrease during childhood and adolescence is likely caused by lowering of cardiac sympathetic influence from sympathetic overdrive in small children to adult-like sympatho-vagal balance in older adolescents.
Date Issued
2024-05-24
Date Acceptance
2024-05-13
Citation
Scientific Reports, 2024, 14
ISSN
2045-2322
Publisher
Nature Portfolio
Journal / Book Title
Scientific Reports
Volume
14
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-62000-7
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
11938
Date Publish Online
2024-05-24