Results

Sixty five patients with angina pectoris (31 in trial 1 and 34 in trial 2) and 33 healthy subjects were included in the study. The diagnosis of coronary artery disease was established by coronary angiography in 58, thallium scintigraphy in six, and exercise test only in one.

The ejection fraction was normal (> 50%) in all cases but was stated with an exact value in only 37, and was visually estimated as normal in the other cases. The mean number of accepted hours of recording, the subjects' age, and the proportion of smokers were approximately the same in the angina patients and the controls. There was a non-significant dominance of women in the control group (table 1).

Comparison of all 65 angina patients and the 33 healthy controls showed globally reduced heart rate variability (GP) in the frequency domain, including reduced HF and LF, but the LF/HF ratio was not significantly different in the two groups. Both HF and LF were higher during the night than during the day. The reduction of GP, LF, and HF was significant both in the day and at night, except for LF during the night. Time domain variables showed a significant reduction of SD, rMSSD, and pNN50—that is, there were signs of reduced vagal tone. Mean RR, SDNN, and SDANN were not significantly reduced (table 2). In one patient SDANN was less than 50 ms; no patient had an SDNN value less than 50 ms.

Comparison of patients in trial 1 with those in trial 2 showed no significant difference in the distribution of Canadian Cardiovascular Society angina classes (CCS FC) but a shorter duration of angina and more severe coronary artery disease in patients in trial I. However, no indices relating to heart rate variability differed significantly between the two groups.

There were no significant correlations between CCS FC, number of diseased vessels, or duration of angina on the one hand, and any heart rate variability index on the other.

All cause mortality during follow up of angina patients was 0% (0/65) at one year, 0% (0/56) at two years, and 3% (1/33) at three years.

Discussion

In this study we showed that uncomplicated coronary artery disease—that is, angina without acute or previous myocardial infarction, other diseases, or drugs that could influence heart rate variability—was associated with a reduction of heart rate variability in the higher spectrum of frequencies. The two variables that are known to be the best indicators of poor prognosis after acute myocardial infarction4 ,5 and in chronic coronary artery disease15— SDNN and SDANN, respectively—were not significantly reduced. Only one patient had a value less than 50 ms, which has been associated with a particularly poor prognosis.4 ,15

We chose to make our analyses from 24 hour Holter recordings, like most other studies that have investigated heart rate variability as a factor in prognosis.4 ,5 ,15 All Holter recordings in both patients and controls were sufficiently long to include adequate portions of both day and night, which is essential for a reliable estimation of SDANN and SDNN.

Heart rate variability in chronic coronary artery disease has been studied by other investigators.15-17 Conclusions from those studies are, however, hampered by confounding factors such as inclusion of patients with previous acute myocardial infarction,15-17 left heart failure,15 and diabetes,15 patients on drugs that influence the sinus node,15 ,17 Holter recording done the same day as the coronary angiography—that is, under stress,15 ,17 or heart rate variability recorded with techniques that do not permit differentiation between sympathetic, vagal, and other effects.16 All such complicating factors were avoided in the present study.

Heart rate variability data in the time domain in our study show a very clear reduction in short term variability (SD, rMSSD, pNN50), thought to reflect vagal tone. Heart rate variability in the frequency domain in angina patients was reduced over the entire range covered by the Marquette system (0.01–1.0 Hz). The LF and HF peaks seemed to be reduced as a part of that general reduction and when they were normalised for GP they showed no difference from the control subjects. These results suggest that the reduction in heart rate variability in angina patients is mainly caused by changes in autonomic tone. It seems reasonable to assume that vagal tone was reduced. If LF/HF reflects the sympathovagal balance, as has been stated,3 the preserved balance in the face of reduction in vagal activity could imply a concomitant reduction of sympathetic tone. A more plausible interpretation, however, is that there was a reduction in vagal activity affecting HF and the vagal part of LF, leaving the LF/HF ratio essentially unchanged. The assumption that LF contains vagal activity is supported by the finding that both HF and LF were higher during the night than during the day.

It may appear a contradiction that the reduction in global power in the frequency domain was not accompanied by a corresponding decrease in SDNN in the time domain. The explanation is that global power in the Marquette system does not include frequencies below 0.01 Hz, which represent more than 90% of the total power.18 ,19 If this part of the spectrum was less affected, it might explain why GP was significantly reduced but not SDRR. Support for this interpretation is that SDANN, which reflects this very low frequency part of the spectrum, was not significantly reduced. The mechanism responsible for ULF and VLF (< 0.04 Hz) is unknown. Thermoregulation and the renin-angiotensin system have been proposed.1

Three major studies have shown that reduced heart rate variability is a powerful and independent predictor of poor prognosis after acute myocardial infarction4 ,5 and in ischaemic heart disease.15 In two of these studies, done after acute myocardial infarction, SDNN and the “triangular index” were used. Both these variables are expressions of total power—that is, power over the entire heart rate variability spectrum. Biggeret al reanalysed their data in the frequency domain and found that power reduction of ultra low (< 0.003 Hz) and very low (0.003–0.04 Hz) frequencies correlated best with poor prognosis.19 Rich et al studied heart rate variability in patients with chronic coronary artery disease but no acute myocardial infarction.15 They used SDANN, which is a non-spectral estimate of low frequency variability, and found that low values were associated with poor prognosis. Thus it seems that low frequency variability is the most important part of the heart rate variability spectrum with respect to prognosis after acute myocardial infarction19 and in chronic coronary heart disease.15 However, in the study by Richet al patients with myocardial infarction more than four weeks old, patients with a low ejection fraction, and patients with diabetes were included.15 It is not unlikely that these diseases influenced both heart rate variability and prognosis. In addition most patients were on drugs including digoxin, which would have made the interpretation of heart rate variability data very difficult.

In the present study, known confounding factors such as previous acute myocardial infarction, a low ejection fraction, other diseases, and drugs were excluded. A possible explanation for the difference between patients and controls in our study could be that the controls were more physically active than the patients, generating more frequency variation in heart rate. The fact that the difference was found during both the day time and the night time records, however, makes this explanation unlikely. Our finding that heart rate variability was reduced over a broad range of the spectrum but with less effect in the lower part suggests that true uncomplicated coronary artery disease is associated with a different pattern of heart rate variability reduction than is found in patients after acute myocardial infarction. Kleigeret al, studying more than 800 patients after acute myocardial infarction, found that 15% had an SDNN value of less than 50 ms,4 and in a study of angina patients, Richet al found an SDANN value of less than 50 ms in 11%.15 In the present study no patient had an SDNN of less than 50 ms and only one had an SDANN less than 50 ms. It may be speculated that uncomplicated coronary artery disease mainly affects the autonomic nervous control of the heart, while previous and acute necrosis of the myocardium causes mechanical derangement of the heart giving rise to reduction in heart rate variability in the lower part of the spectrum. Our patients had zero two year mortality, giving further support for the observations by Kleiger4 and Rich15 that reduction in heart rate variability that does not include the low frequencies seems to carry a good prognosis.

Airaksinen et al found that patients with angina on no drug treatment, but some with prior myocardial infarction, had reduced vagal tone measured as heart rate response to deep breathing.16 These results are in accord with ours, but their method precluded any exploration of other parts of the heart rate spectrum.

Hayanao et al used spectral analysis in a heart rate variability study of angina patients with different degrees of coronary artery disease, including patients with previous myocardial infarction.17 They found impairment of vagal function which is in agreement with our findings, but they did not extend their study to the lower parts of the heart rate variability spectrum. The degree of reduction in vagal tone was correlated with the extent of coronary disease in Hayano's study, but there was also a correlation with the incidence of previous myocardial infarction and with the ejection fraction. In our present study of patients with normal ejection fractions and no previous myocardial infarction, we found no correlation between the number of diseased vessels and any heart rate variability index. Neither could we find any correlation between heart rate variability and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society angina grade or the duration of angina.