Prognostic value of heart rate turbulence and heart rate variability in children with dilated cardiomyopathy

The aim of our study is to evaluate the prognostic value of heart rate turbulence and heart rate variability in children with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Twenty-five children with DCM and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy children who were admitted between January 2002 and September 2004, enrolled in this prospective study at our hospital. After the echocardiographic examination, three-channel 24-ambulatory ECG recordings were obtained in all patients with DCM and in the control group. Time domain heart rate variability parameters were obtained in both groups. Heart rate turbulence was measured in DCM patients, but we could not calculate heart rate turbulence in the control group since no ventricular ventricular premature complexes (PVC) were found in the 24-hour ECG monitoring in the control group. The mean follow-up period of the DCM group was 13.4 months (3-26 months). Five patients died (20%) during the follow-up period. Triangle index, turbulence slope (TS), age and availability of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) on 24-hour ECG monitoring were prognostic factors according to the correlation analyses. Only triangle index was detected as an independent risk factor among the prognostic factors according to the logistic regression analyses. This study assessed the prognostic value of heart rate turbulence and heart rate variability in children with dilated cardiomyopathy. Further studies are needed to investigate the prognostic value of heart rate turbulence.