• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.32-50
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• 2000

A descriptive exploratory design was used in this study to evaluate the effects of sponge bathing on physiological(heart rate, heart period, vagal tone, oxygen saturation, respiration) and behavioral responses in newly born 40 preterm infants from intensive care unit of S University Hospital in Seoul. Data has been collected from October, 1997 to March, 1999. The infants were between 27-33 weeks gestational age at birth, and were free of congenital defects. The subjects entered the protocol when they were medically stable (determined by initiation of feeding and discontinuation of all respiratory support) but still receiving neonatal intensive care. The infants' physiologic parameters were recorded a 10 - minute before, during, and after bathing. Continuous heart rate data were recorded on a notebook computer from the infant's EKG monitor. The data were digitized off-line on software(developed by Lee and Chang in Wavelet program) which detected the peak of the R wave for each heart beat and quantified sequential R-R intervals in msec(i.e. heart periods). Heart period data were edited to remove movement artifact. Heart period data were quantified as : 1) mean heart period; 2) vagal tone. Vagal tone was quantitfied with a noninvasive measure developed by Porges(1985) in Mxedit software. To determine behavioral status, tools were developed by Scafidi et al(1990) were used. Collected data were analyzed with the SPSS program using paried t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation. The result were as follow. 1. The results of the ANOVAs indicated that vagal tone were signifcantly lower during bathing than baseline and post-bathing. There were significant differences in heart period and heart rate levels across the bathing. But the mean oxygen saturations and respirations were no differences. Also, there were no significant differences on behavioral sign, motor activity, behavioral distress, weight changes, morbidity, and hospitalization period. 2. To evaluate the relation between vagal tone and subsequent parameters, the two groups (the high group had 19 subjects and low group had 21subjects) were divided by the mean baseline vagal tone. Vagal tone measured prior to bathing were significantly associated with respiration before bathing, vagal tone during bathing, and the magnitude of change in both vagal tone. But, other subsequent reactivities were no differences in two groups. 3. Correlations were also calculated between vagal tone and the subsequent physiological reactivities from baseline through after- bathing. Correlations were significant between baseline vagal tone and baseline heart rate, between baseline vagal tone and baseline heart period, between baseline vagal tone and oxygen saturation after bathing. In summary, the bathing in this study showed a stressful stimulus on premature infants through there was significance in the physiological parameters. In addition, our study represents the documentation that vagal tone reactivity in response to clearly defined external stimulation provides an index of infant's status.

• Child Health Nursing Research
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.299-305
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• 2009

Purpose: Multiple studies have documented that high resting levels of cardiac vagal tone suggest higher levels of self-regulation. The aim of this study was to evaluate cardiac vagal tone as an indicator of autonomic nervous function in healthy newborn and premature infants. Methods: This study was conducted using a descriptive comparison design and a convenience sampling strategy. The participants were 72 healthy and 62 premature infants delivered in a university hospital. Continuous heart rate data recordings from the infant's ECG were analyzed and Mxedit software was used to calculate mean heart period and an index of cardiac vagal tone. Results: The healthy infants had significantly higher cardiac vagal tone than the premature infants, when the influence of gestational age was removed using analysis of covariance. However, there were no significant differences in heart rate and heart period between the two groups when the influence of gestational age was removed using analysis of covariance. Conclusion: The results of this study show that cardiac vagal tone may be used as an index for determining infant's autonomic nervous function. Nursing staff in pediatric departments can use cardiac vagal tone with ease, as this index can be calculated in a noninvasive method from the ECG.

• Kosin Medical Journal
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.369-379
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• 2018

Objectives: Analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) has been used as a measure of cardiac autonomic function. According to the pNN50 statistic, the percentage of differences between successive normal RR intervals (RRI) that exceed 50 ms, has been known to reflect cardiac vagal modulation. Relatively little is known about the validity of pNN50 during general anesthesia (GA). Therefore, we evaluated the correlation of pNN50 with other variables such as HF, RMSSD, SD1 of HRV reflecting the vagal tone, and examined the validity of pNN50 in anesthetized patients. Methods: We assessed changes in RRI, pNN50, root mean square of successive differences of RRI (RMSSD), high frequency (HF) and standard deviation 1 (SD1) of $Poincar{\acute{e}}$ plots after GA using sevoflurane anesthesia. We also calculated the probability distributions for the family of pNNx statistics (x: 2-50 ms). Results: All HRV variables were significantly decreased during GA. HF power was not correlated with pNN50 during GA (r = 0.096, P = 0.392). Less than pNN47 was shown to have a correlation with other variables. Conclusions: These data suggest that pNN50 can not reflect the level of vagal tone during GA.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.151-164
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• 2002

PURPOSE: Estrogen replacement therapy is indicated for the relief of hot flushes and urogenital atrophy, the prevention of osteoporosis and the reduction in risk of cardiovascular disease. The present study assessed by blood pressure, heart rate variability, and climacteric symptoms in menopausal women before treatment and at 1 month during estrogen replacement therapy. METHODS: The study sample consisted of 16 healthy menopausal women (range 49 to 59 years, mean : 53.4 years) attending menopausal clinics for the complaint of climateric symptoms at S. hospital in Chunchoen. They were all non-smokers and no patient had symptoms or evidence of cardiovascular disease. They took estrogen replacement therapy (conjugated estrogen 0.625 mg with or without medroxy progesteron 2.5mg) for 1 month. Blood pressure, heart rate variability(heart period and vagal tone) through ECG, and climacteric symptom were measured in all subjects before treatment and at 1 month during treatment. Climacteric symptom questionnaire which was developed by Neugarten et al.(1963) was modified with 20 items of question(Cronbach's alpha = 88 -.89). The data was collected from Sept. 1. 2000 to July. 30. 2001. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in mean systolic and diastolic pressure between the baseline and at 1 month during treatment. The mean heart period and vagal tone were slightly increased, but difference of mean heart period and vagal tone were not statistically significant between the baseline and at 1 month during treatment. The score of climacteric symptoms decreased significantly from the baseline after treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Even though, this study did not show that estrogen replacement therapy led decrease of blood pressure and increase heart rate variability, climacteric symptoms reduced much in all subjects after taking drugs. These results suggest that there is need to repeat study with long term period.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.35 no.8
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• pp.1451-1460
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• 2005

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the premature infants' responses to infant massage (tactile and kinesthetic stimulation). These responses measured by weight, physiological (vagal tone, heart rate, oxygen saturation) and behavioral responses (behavioral states, motor activities, and behavioral distress). Methods. This study was conducted using an equivalent control pretest-posttest design. The sample was divided into two groups of 13 infants with gestational age less than 36 weeks at birth, birth weight less than 2000g, and no congenital anomalies. The experimental group received the massage intervention twice daily for 10 days. The data were collected for 10 minutes prior to and 10 minutes after the massage. Results. The vagal tone was significantly higher after massage than before massage in the experimental group, while no change in the control group. The experimental group had significantly higher scores for awake state and motor activity than the control group. Significantly greater awake state, more fidgeting or crying, and increased motor activity were reported after massage than before massage. Conclusions. The results of this study showed that massage therapy might enhance optimal physiological responses and behavioral organization of premature infants. Nursing staff in the NICU can use massage to promote the infant's capability to respond positively to his environment and to provide developmental support for healthy premature infants.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Emotion and Sensibility Conference
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• 2001.11a
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• pp.91-95
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• 2001

In this study, we estimated the behavior of the diversity of physiological responses under varied physical environmental factors by measuring variations of heart rate variability (HRV), an index of activity of cardiac autonomic control. Seven healthy young male adults consented and participated in the study. The environmental conditions consisted of thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions. Two components of HRV were measured. one was the low frequency (LF) component of HRV, which provided a quantitative index of the sympathetic and parasympathetic (vagal) activities controlling the heart rate (HR). The other component measured was the high frequency (HF) component, which provided an index of the vagal tone. The percent contribution of physical environmental factors to the variations in HRV indices were calculated by ANOVA. The contribution of physical environmental factors to the variations in HR was higher than the contribution of HF and LF. However, the contribution of these factors was lower than the contribution related with individual difference in all indices. This result showed that the individual diversity of physiological responses is not a negligible quantity.

• Journal of Life Science
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.320-332
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• 2024

The aims of this study were to compare the differences in hemodynamics between cigarette smoking and using heated tobacco products (HTPs) and to determine the acute effects of using HTPs on cardiac autonomic regulation. Another goal was to examine the acute cardiac autonomic responses when using different tobacco sticks in HTPs. Sixteen healthy male smokers completed an open-label, randomized, crossover trial consisting of non-smoking (NS), cigarette smoking, and the use of two different HTPs (IQOS with HEETS; lil SOLID with Fiit). Sub-trials, which included NS, lil SOLID with Fiit, and lil SOLID with HEET, were performed on eight smokers among the total subjects. Hemodynamic variables, such as systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate variability were measured before, during, and 30 minutes after using each tobacco product. Using HTPs resulted in a significant increase in both SBP and DBP, comparable to smoking cigarettes. Cardiac sympathetic activity significantly increased, and cardiac vagal tone (CVT) significantly decreased after acute exposure to HTP aerosol, similar to the effects of cigarette smoke exposure. Furthermore, differences in the withdrawal of CVT were observed when using different tobacco sticks in the same HTPs. The findings of this study indicate that acute exposure to HTP aerosol increases the hemodynamic burden and disrupts cardiac autonomic balance, similar to exposure to cigarette smoke. Moreover, depending on the type of tobacco stick inserted into the HTP device, acute withdrawal of CVT may have been enhanced.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.277-281
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• 1990

Xylazine is commonly used for anesthesia in veterinary medicine and various adverse effects are developed. To examine if the severe hypotensive response associated with xylazine-induced anesthesia might be resulted from the stimulation of presynaptic alpha-2 adrenoceptors or the increase of vagal tone, effects of yohimbine, atropine and atropine with vagotomy on xylazine-induced severe and long-lasting hypotensive responses were investigated in rabbits. The results were summarized as follows: 1) Intravenously injected xylazine(1mg/kg)-induced hypotensive responses were inhibited by yohimbine(p<0.001). 2) Intravenously injected xylazine(1mg/kg)-induced hypotensive responses were not changed by atropine. 3) Intravenously administered xylazine(1mg/kg)-induced hypotensive responses are not changed by atropine with vagotomy. These results indicate that xylazine is thought to cause severe hypotensive response during anesthesia primarily by stimulating presynaptic alpha-2 adrenoceptors and other receptors or mechanisms may participate in the hgpotensive response of xylazine.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.606-620
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• 2020

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Although some juices affect subjective sleep quality, there is a lack of information on the effect of a specific juice on objective sleep quality and heart rate variability (HRV) during sleep; thus the present study investigated whether a blended juice made from natural extracts influenced sleep quality and HRV during sleep in adults with disturbed sleep. SUBJECTS/METHODS: A randomized, crossover study was conducted on twenty-five adults (15/10, female/male) complaining of difficulty initiating or maintaining nighttime sleep (Pittsburgh sleep quality index [PSQI] ≥ 5). During feeding sessions (FS), subjects received sleep-inducing juice made of natural ingredients (250 mL/trial) twice a day for 8 weeks or non-FS (N-FS) for 8 weeks while maintaining normal activities. Sleep quality and parameters were recorded via wearable actigraph for 7 consecutive days, and PSQI scores were assessed before and after the intervention. HRV was also monitored at rest and during sleep. RESULTS: After receiving the sleep-inducing juice intervention (FS), PSQI scores were significantly decreased (P < 0.001) and correlated with a significant decline in fatigue severity scale and visual analogue scale levels (P < 0.05; both). HRV indices of vagal activity were significantly improved during FS (P < 0.05), and no significant differences in N-FS were observed. Sleep efficiency and total sleep time increased significantly (P < 0.05) and sleep latency, total counts, sleep fragmentation index, and movement index, decreased significantly (P < 0.05, all 4) during FS, with no significant differences-observed during N-FS. CONCLUSIONS: This study results demonstrated that an 8-week course of sleep-inducing juice has led to improve sleep quality, suggesting an enhanced cardiac vagal tone during sleep. Thus, it could be a well-tolerated option for adults with disturbed sleep.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.25-36
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• 2007

Objectives : Acupuncture restores the flow of vital energy in the body by stimulating the organ-specific meridians and enhances cardiac vagal activity and suppresses sympathetic activity. The purpose of this review is to summarize and evaluate the acupuncture studies on autonomic nervous system (ANS). Methods : We conducted a PubMed search to obtain a fair sample of acupuncture studies related ANS published in English in 2007. Each article was reviewed for study objectives and outcomes, as well as acupuncture points, experimental and control interventions. Results : We reviewed a total of 15 studies published from 1997 to 2007. In normal states, acupuncture enhanced either vagal or sympathetic tone depending on the stimulated acupuncture point sites. On the other hand, most of studies demonstrated that acupuncture restored the autonomic dysfunctions in various kinds of stressful states. Conclusions : We reviewed studies that contributed to an understanding of the autonomic mechanisms of acupuncture with the hope that this review will be of benefit to the future studies. Although the relationship between acupuncture and ANS response is still uncertain, acupuncture would be a noteworthy modality for modulating autonomic dysfunction.