EXTENT OF CORRELATION AMONG THREE DIFFERENT SOFTWARES FOR ASSESSMENT OF SHORT-TERM HEART RATE VARIABILITY INDICES

Heart rate variability (HRV) is considered as a marker for the autonomic status of an individual. Numerous softwares and hardwares are available in the market for recording and analyzing HRV. While many softwares are marketed, a few are also available free of cost to analyze the HRV. Patients reports on HRV from various laboratories cannot be easily compared until the HRV softwares used in these laboratories correlate well with each other and with well-known and widely used software. The aim of the present study was to explore the extent of correlation among three HRV analysis softwares which are commonly used in India. Five minutes of resting supine ECG was acquired twice at one month interval from 18 healthy volunteers (21-32 years, both genders). Short-term HRV indices were computed from these ECG data using 3 different softwares. The softwares were NEVROKARD aHRV 12.0.0. (Medistar Inc., Slovenia), Advanced HRV analysis software 1.1, Biomedical Signal Analysis group, University of Kuopio, Finland and HRV analysis software 1.1, Autonomic Function Laboratory, Department of Physiology, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Both time and frequency domain indices were analyzed to check the extent of correlation. As the data was found to be normally distributed, correlations among the short-term HRV indices computed by the three softwares were assessed using Pearsons correlation coefficient test. P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The result of the study revealed good correlation among the short-term HRV indices obtained using the three different softwares. The implication is that the three softwares can be used interchangeably for short-term HRV analysis.