Summary
Background: The prognostic value of heart rate variability in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy
(DCM) is limited and does not contribute to risk stratification although the dynamics
of ventricular repolarization differs considerably between DCM patients and healthy
subjects. Neither linear nor nonlinear methods of heart rate variability analysis
could discriminate between patients at high and low risk for sudden cardiac death.
Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the suitability of the new developed segmented
Poincaré plot analysis (SPPA) to enhance risk stratification in DCM.
Methods: In contrast to the usual applied Poincaré plot analysis the SPPA retains nonlinear
features from investigated beat-to-beat interval time series. Main features of SPPA
are the rotation of cloud of points and their succeeded variability depended segmentation.
Results: Significant row and column probabilities were calculated from the segments and led
to discrimination (up to p < 0.005) between low and high risk in DCM patients.
Conclusion: For the first time an index from Poincaré plot analysis of heart rate variability
was able to contribute to risk stratification in patients suffering from DCM.
Keywords
Dilated cardiomyopathy - nonlinear dynamics - Poincaré plot - risk stratification