Heart Rate Variability and Sudden Cardiac Death

December 22, 2015 updated by: Columbia University

The Ability of Several Short-term Measures of RR Variability to Predict Mortality After Myocardial Infarction

To evaluate the ability of heart rate variability to identify myocardial infarction patients at high risk of dying, particularly from sudden cardiac death.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

BACKGROUND:

Sudden cardiac death usually is caused by malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Malignant ventricular arrhythmias in coronary heart disease are due to an interplay among substrate such as scarred ventricles, triggering events such as spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias, and the autonomic nervous system. Non-invasive methods were needed to evaluate these three components of risk in order to develop comprehensive detection and prevention programs. Non-invasive screening tests for the arrhythmogenic substrate include left ventricular ejection fraction and signal-averaged electrocardiograms, and for triggering events, the 24-hour continuous ECG recordings. Measures of heart rate variability defined as the variability of the instantaneous heart rates or heart period variability defined as variability of the normal R-R intervals may provide the means for non-invasive assessment of autonomic nervous system activity. In previous studies it has been shown that a broad band measure of heart period variability, the standard deviation of all normal R-R intervals in a continuous 24-hour ECG recording made eight to fourteen days after myocardial infarction, predicted mortality in the subsequent two to four years independently of left ventricular dysfunction and spontaneous ventricular arrhythmias.

The six multicenter studies from which the data were drawn included: the Multicenter Post Infarction Program (MPIP), a longitudinal, observational study of 867 patients; the Multicenter Diltiazem Post Infarction Trial (MDPIT), a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 2,466 patients; the Cardiac Arrhythmia Pilot Study (CAPS), a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 502 patients; the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST), a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 4,200 patients; Electrophysiologic Studies Versus Electrocardiographic Monitoring (ESVEM), a comparison of two methods for evaluating antiarrhythmic drug efficacy in 350 patients; and the Cardiac Rate/Rhythm in Normal Adults, a cross-sectional observational study of 250 subjects.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Measurements of short and long-term heart rate and heart period variability were compared. The day-to-day reproducibility and time course of change were determined in measures of heart rate variability and heart period variability in patients with myocardial infarction. The predictive accuracy of heart rate variability measured late after myocardial infarction for subsequent mortality and development of malignant ventricular arrhythmias was determined. Heart rate and heart period variability findings after myocardial infarction were compared with those in age and sex-matched normal subjects and with those made in patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmias.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

715

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • New York
      • New York, New York, United States, 10032
        • Columbia University

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Participants in the Multicenter Post Infarction Program (MPIP), a natural history study

Description

Inclusion criteria

--Patients that have had myocardial infarction within 2 weeks - still in hospital and sedentary except for short walks in hospital corridors

Exclusion criteria

--Inadequate 24-hour ECG recordings

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Columbia University

Collaborators

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: John Bigger, MD, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Pharmacology, Columbia University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 1988

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 1993

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 1993

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 25, 2000

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 25, 2000

First Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2000

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 24, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 22, 2015

Last Verified

December 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • CUMC ID unknown (1116)
  • R01HL041552 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Study Data/Documents

  1. NCBI website

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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