Relationship of children′s unexplained chest pain and/or chest distress with catecholamine and heart rate variability / 中华实用儿科临床杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the changes of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity in children with chest pain and/or chest distress of unknown cause based on their plasma catecholamine and heart rate variability indexes, and to analyze the predictive value of each index in diagnosing pediatric sympathetic excitation-related chest pain and/or chest distress by used receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis.Methods:Fifty-seven children who complained of unexplained chest pain and/or chest distress and had no organic diseases according to routine examinations in the Chengdu Women′s and Children′s Hospital from June 2017 to June 2019 were enrolled in the study group.There were 22 males and 35 females, aged 5-15 years old[(8.40±0.35) years old]. Meanwhile, 54 healthy children in the same period were enrolled in the healthy control group, including 21 males and 33 females, aged 5-15 years old (8.87±0.36) years old]. The disease history enquiring, physical examination, chest X-ray, 12-lead electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, blood routine test and biochemical test excluded the organic heart, lung, digestive tract and chest wall diseases in both groups.Their blood samples were collected to detect catecholamine and they were monitored by dynamic electrocardiogram.SPSS 25.0 software was used for statistical analysis and ROC curve analysis.Results:The study group exhibited higher dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine levels than those in the healthy control group[(0.83±0.04) nmol/L vs.(0.54±0.03) nmol/L, (0.76±0.04) nmol/L vs.(0.56±0.03) nmol/L and(3.59±0.18) nmol/L vs.(2.51±0.15) nmol/L], and the differences were statistically significant( t=4.906, 3.611, 4.596, all P<0.01). The levels of standard deviation of NN intervals, standard deviation of all mean 5-minutes NN intervals, standard deviation of all NN intervals for all 5-minute segments of 24 hours, root mean squared successive difference and proportion of NN 50 in the total number of NN intervals in the study group were lower than those in the healthy control group [(110.49±2.81) ms vs.(132.13±2.55) ms, (86.37±3.26) ms vs.(118.96±2.00) ms, (33.46±2.21) ms vs.(68.91±1.29) ms, (37.63±1.22) ms vs.(48.93±1.75) ms and(17.37±1.45)% vs.(22.22±1.61)%], and the differences were statistically significant( t=-5.710, -8.419, -13.862, -5.354, -2.245, all P<0.05). The area under the curve of plasma dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine in the diagnosis of pediatric sympathetic excitation-related chest pain and/or chest distress were 0.753, 0.689 and 0.746, respectively, higher than that of all heart rate variability indexes. Conclusions:Children′s unexplained chest pain and/or chest distress is highly related with autonomic nervous dysfunction (increased sympathetic activity and decreased parasympathetic activity). The level of plasma catecholamine can be used to reflect the changes of sympathetic activity in these children and diagnose sympathetic excitation-related chest pain and/or chest distress.Psychological counseling and relaxation therapy are supposed to be effective in redu-cing sympathetic activity, improving subjective symptoms and elevating their quality of life.