HEART RATE TURBULENCE FOR GUIDING ELECTRIC THERAPY IN PATIENTS WITH CARDIAC FAILURE

Background It is well-known that a reduction of the cardiac frequency variability, measurable with the Heart Rate Variability (HRV) system, is an indirect expression of the sympathetic-autonomic tone. Another index, Heart Rate Turbulence (HRT), has been recently suggested as a possible unit of measurement for the sympathetic-autonomic tone: this system allows to estimate the baro-reflex response of the carotid arteries to an early ventricular extra-systole by analysing heart rate variations induced by a premature beat.