Background and objective: Cardiac autonomic
dysfunction that is measured by heart rate variability
(HRV) is associated with motor impairments of acute
chronic stroke patients. The purposes of this study
were to investigate the association between HRV,
motor impairments and disability level in chronic
ischemic stroke patients.
Methods: Thirteen individuals with chronic stroke
(6-72 months) were included. They were required to
have the ability to stand independently for at least 5 minutes and could follow 2 step commands.
Participants were evaluated their HRV for 20 minutes
in supine position. Upper and lower extremities motor
impairments and level of disability were assessed by
Fugl-Meyer assessment (FMA) and modified Rankin
Scale (mRS), respectively. Spearman’s correlation
coefficients were used to investigate the association
between outcome measures. Differences were
considered statistically significant at p<0.05.
Result: The results showed moderate positive
correlations between upper extremity motor
impairments (FMA-UEs) and low-frequency power in
normal units (LF (nu)) (r=0.622; p=0.02), and
low-frequency to high- frequency power (LF/HF) ratio
(r=0.561; p=0.04). Furthermore, there were strong
negative correlations between level of disability and
LF (nu) (r =-0.855; p<0.001), and LF/HF ratio (r=-0.711;
p=0.006).
Conclusion: HRV of chronic ischemic stroke is associated
with upper extremity motor impairments and
level of disability.
Keywords
Heart Rate Variability Ischemic Stroke Motor Impairment Disability Level