Correlation between heart rate variability and cognitive impairment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea / 国际脑血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the correlation between heart rate variability (HRV) and cognitive impairment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).Methods:Patients received polysomnography in Weihai Municipal Hospital from June 2019 to November 2020 were enrolled as the subjects of cross-sectional analysis. According to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment score, the patients with OSA were divided into a cognitive impairment group and a non-cognitive impairment group. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to determine whether HRV parameters were the independent influencing factors of cognitive impairment in patients with OSA. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the independent correlation between HRV parameters and overall cognition as well as each cognitive domain in patients with OSA. Results:A total of 115 patients with OSA were included, including 80 males (69.6%), aged 58.25±9.88 years. Among them, there were 61 in the cognitive impairment group (53.0%) and 54 in the non-cognitive impairment group (47.0%). The standard deviation of the R-R interval in normal sinus beats (SDNN), the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of the difference between adjacent NN intervals (RMSSD), the percentage of the number of pairs of adjacent R-R intervals differing by more than 50 ms (pNN50) and the power in high-frequency range (HF; 0.15-0.40 Hz) in the cognitive impairment group were significantly lower than those in non-cognitive impairment group (all P<0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that SDNN (odds ratio [ OR] 0.551, 95% confidence interval [ CI] 0.380-0.798; P=0.002), RMSSD ( OR 0.516, 95% CI 0.342-0.779; P=0.002), pNN50 ( OR 0.900, 95% CI 0.834-0.971; P=0.006), LF ( OR 0.821, 95% CI 0.687-0.982; P=0.030) and HF ( OR 0.687, 95% CI 0.525-0.899; P=0.006) were the independent protective factors of cognitive impairment in patients with OSA. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that SDNN ( β=0.208, P=0.023), RMSSD ( β=0.228, P=0.011), pNN50 ( β=0.186, P=0.040), HF ( β=0.235, P=0.010) is independently correlated with overall cognitive function in patients with OSA. Conclusion:The decline of HRV parameters SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50 and HF is independently correlated with cognitive impairment in patients with OSA, suggesting that the decline of vagus nerve function may be involved in the mechanism of cognitive impairment in patients with OSA.