Abstract :
Introduction: Heart rate variability (HRV) has been proposed as an indicator of cardiovascular health. Compared to their male counterparts, women are at less risk of coronary heart disease, and of serious arrhythmias, with women lagging behind men in the incidenceof sudden death by 20 years since women have a lower cardiovascular risk, a hypothesis was generated that there exist gender differences in autonomic modulation.
Methods: We studied 100 subjects (50 males and 50 females). Anthropometric parameters like age; height; weight and BMI were measured. The baseline characteristics like resting heart rate; systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were recorded at supine rest for 5 minutes. Using HRV software, recording and analysis of HRV parameters like Total power; Low frequency; Low frequency normalized units; High frequency; High frequency normalized units and Low frequency / High frequency ratio were done.
Results: Frequency domain measures of HRV were compared in age-matched populations of 50 males and 50 females. The mean and standard deviation of the low-frequency spectral components of HRV analyzed as absolute units as well as normalised units were high in males as compared to females (p
Keyword :
Heart Rate Variability, Autonomic Nervous System, Cardiovascular disorders, Autonomic modulation, Gender differences