Subject-specific profiles of QT/RR hysteresis

• Published in: American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology Vol. 295; no. 6; pp. H2356 - H2363
• Main Authors: Malik, Marek, Hnatkova, Katerina, Novotny, Tomas, Schmidt, Georg
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physiological Society 01.12.2008
• Subjects: Action Potentials; Adaptation, Physiological; Adult; Cardiology; Electrocardiography; Female; Heart; Heart Conduction System - physiology; Heart Rate; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Cardiovascular; Reproducibility of Results; Time Factors; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0363-6135; 1522-1539
• DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00625.2008

1 Saint Paul's Cardiac Electrophysiology, London, and 2 Saint George's, University of London, London, United Kingdom; 3 University Hospital Brno, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic; and 4 Medizinische Klinik, Technische Universität München, Munich, Germany Submitted 13 June 2008 ; accepted in final form 8 October 2008 The time lag of the QT interval adaptation to heart rate changes (QT/RR hysteresis) was studied in 40 healthy subjects (18 females; mean age, 30.4 ± 8.1 yr) with 3 separate daytime (>13 h) 12-lead electrocardiograms (ECG) in each subject. In each recording, 330 individual 10-s ECG segments were measured, including 100 segments preceded by 2 min of heart rate varying greater than ±2 beats/min. Other segments were preceded by a stable heart rate. In segments preceded by variable rate, QT/RR hysteresis was characterized by parameters of the exponential decay models. The intrasubject SDs of values were compared with the intersubject SD of the individual means. The values were also correlated to individually optimized parameters of heart rate correction. Intrasubject SDs of were substantially smaller than the population SD of individual means (0.390 ± 0.197 vs. 0.711, P < 0.0001). The values were unrelated to the QT/RR correction parameters. When compared with the corrected QT (QTc) for averaged RR intervals in 10-s ECGs and with the averaged RR intervals in 2-min history, QTc for QT/RR hysteresis led to a substantially smaller SD of QTc values (11.4 ± 2.00, 6.33 ± 1.31, and 4.66 ± 0.85 ms, respectively, P < 0.0001). Thus the speed with which the QT interval adapts to heart rate changes is highly individual with intrasubject stability and intersubject variability. QT/RR hysteresis is independent of the static QT/RR relationship and should be considered as a separate physiological process. The combination of individual heart rate correction with individual hysteresis correction of the QT interval is likely to lead to substantial improvements of cardiac repolarization studies. QT adaptation; individual QT correction; electrocardiogram measurement; corrected QT variability Address for reprint requests and other correspondence: M. Malik, St. Paul's Cardiac Electrophysiology, London, 16 Verulam Ave., Purley, Surrey CR8 3NQ, UK (e-mail: marek.malik{at}btinternet.com )