Heart Rate Variability

Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) is the physiological phenomenon of variation in the time interval between heartbeats. It is measured by the variation in the beat-to-beat interval.

Other terms used include: "cycle length variability", "RR variability" (where R is a point corresponding to the peak of the QRS complex of the ECG wave; and RR is the interval between successive Rs), and "heart period variability".

See also Heart rate turbulence, Sinus rhythm.

Methods used to detect beats include: ECG, blood pressure, and the pulse wave signal derived from a photoplethysmograph (PPG). ECG is considered superior because it provides a clear waveform, which makes it easier to exclude heartbeats not originating in the sinoatrial node. The term "NN" is used in place of RR to emphasize the fact that the processed beats are "normal" beats.

Read more about Heart Rate Variability:  Clinical Significance, Mental and Social Aspects, Variation, Heart Rate Variability Phenomena, HRV Artifact, HRV Analysis, Duration and Circumstances of ECG Recording, Changes of HRV Related To Specific Pathologies, Modifications of HRV By Specific Interventions, Normal Values of Standard Measures of HRV

Famous quotes containing the words heart, rate and/or variability:

    “Public opinion contains all kinds of falsity and truth, but it takes a great man to find the truth in it. The great man of the age is the one who can put into words the will of his age, tell his age what its will is, and accomplish it. What he does is the heart and the essence of his age, he actualizes his age. The man who lacks sense enough to despise public opinion expressed in gossip will never do anything great.”
    —Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)

    “If I die prematurely at any rate I shall be saved from being bored to death at my own success.”
    —Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

    “The grand points in human nature are the same to-day they were a thousand years ago. The only variability in them is in expression, not in feature.”
    —Herman Melville (1819–1891)