For the over 1 million Americans who survive severe traumatic brain injuries each year, the road to recovery is often long and challenging. Disruption of the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary functions like heart rate, is a common yet poorly understood consequence of TBI. While heart rate variability (HRV) is a widely used measure of autonomic function, the standard 5-minute recording can be cumbersome for patients with cognitive and physical impairments.
Now, a team led by researchers at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina has found that HRV can be accurately captured in severe TBI survivors using recordings as short as 30 to 60 seconds. The study, published in Brain Medicine , is the first to validate ultra-short HRV in this population, a finding with important implications for patient care and research. Measuring HRV provides a window into the autonomic nervous system, but the standard 5-minute assessment can be difficult for patients who struggle with prolonged recordings.
Our findings suggest we can get reliable HRV data in just a fraction of that time, making it feasible to integrate regular autonomic check-ups into clinical care and daily life for TBI survivors." Hiago Melo, researcher at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina and study's first author The researchers analyzed ECG recordings from 48 patients one year after a severe TBI. By comparing HRV values calculated from the standard 5-minute recording to those from shorter segments of the sam.
