Heart rate variability is reduced in acromegaly patients and improved by treatment with somatostatin analogues

What Was Tested

This clinical study looks at Octreotide and Somatostatin.

The aim of this study was to investigate both the time and frequency domain parameters of Heart Rate Variability (HRV), in order to characterize the cardiac autonomic functions in patients affected by acromegaly.

This study correlated anthropometric, metabolic, echocardiographic parameters and blood pressure with those relating to HRV, to identify the main factors responsible for the HRV related alterations possibly present.

The researchers also aimed to analyze the effects of the treatment with somatostatin analogues (SSAs) on HRV.

Why It Was Studied

However, few data are available on cardiac autonomic functions and sympathovagal balance in acromegalic patients.

Who Took Part

The abstract describes 47 patients taking part.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were young adults, adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

This study enrolled 47 acromegalic patients (23 males, age 49.1 ± 13.5 years) and 37 (13 males) age matched (52.3 ± 13.3 years) healthy subjects.

All participants underwent 12-lead 24 h ECG Holter recordings and a HRV analysis of the ECG tracings was performed.

How the Study Was Run

The parameters obtained from the time domain analysis of HRV included pNN50, SDNN, SDNN index, SDANN and RMSSD.

The power spectral analysis of HRV was obtained by summing powers of the LF (low frequency) and the HF (high frequency) band.

Sympathovagal balance was estimated by calculating the LF/HF ratio during 24 h and 15 min of clinostatism.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acromegaly, Adenoma, Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal, Autonomic Nervous System, Blood Pressure, Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory and Case-Control Studies.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a clinical study of Octreotide and Somatostatin in 47 patients.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 9 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2015 (Pituitary), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Octreotide compound page and the Somatostatin compound page, all human trials.