Can heart rate variability parameters derived by a heart rate monitor differentiate between atrial fibrillation and sinus rhythm?

Table 1 Median and range of the RMSSD values of 14 horses before (in atrial fibrillation (AF)) and after cardioversion (in sinus rhythm (SR))

Pace	Method	Artifact correction	RMSSD AF		RMSSD SR		P-value
Pace	Method	Artifact correction	Median	Range	Median	Range	P-value
Rest	ECG_Man	none	670	248–1409	85	26–378	0.024*
Rest	ECG_Aut	none	674	244–1409	118	26–580	0.024*
Rest	ECG_Aut	Kubios very low	216	194–293	87	26–181	.0.024*
Rest	ECG_Aut	Kubios low	195	160–233	82	16–175	0.024*
Rest	ECG_Aut	Kubios moderate	145	125–193	72	26–145	0.024*
Rest	ECG_Aut	Kubios high	78	61–112	61	25–94	0,79
Rest	ECG_Aut	Kubios very high	23	13–98	30	18–56	1
Rest	HRM	Polar Flow	233	72–329	78	32–169	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Man	None	229	84–495	43	11–185	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	None	226	153–495	83	11–194	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	Kubios very low	189	124–236	34	11–113	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	Kubios low	163	117–219	34	11–104	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	Kubios moderate	135	105–161	34	11–79	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	Kubios high	82	62–102	28	11–63	0.024*
Walk	ECG_Aut	Kubios very high	33	11–52	22	10–45	1
Walk	HRM	Polar Flow	126	49–167	32	6–73	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Man	None	89	53–144	10	5–18	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Aut	None	125	34–377	86	7–221	1
Trot	ECG_Aut	Kubios very low	93	52–187	13	7–58	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Aut	Kubios low	84	48–124	13	7–53	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Aut	Kubios moderate	71	43–122	13	7–36	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Aut	Kubios high	52	34–85	13	7–32	0.024*
Trot	ECG_Aut	Kubios very high	22	14–49	11	5–32	0,22
Trot	HRM	Polar Flow	37	25–108	6	5–16	0.024*

Two-minute recordings at rest, walk and trot were analyzed using 4 different methods of RR detection and HRV analysis. The automatically analyzed ECG followed by beat-to-beat manual correction of QRS detection (ECG_Man) with HRV analysis using Kubios HRV Software without artifact filter was considered the gold standard method. HRM Polar heart rate monitor (Equine H7) with plastic electrodes and Polar Flow Software. ECG_Aut ECG with automatic RR interval detection (Televet 100) and Kubios HRV software with 5 different artifact correction levels. The artifact correction algorithm identifies every RR interval that differs from the average RR interval of the 2-min recording more than a specified threshold value as artifacts and replaces the corrupted RR interval by interpolated RR values. The threshold values used in this study were 0.45 s (very low artifact correction), 0.35 s (low), 0.25 s (moderate), 0.15 s (high) and 0.05 s (very high). * Indicates significant differences

ISSN: 1746-6148