A new method of assessing cardiac autonomic function and its comparison with spectral analysis and coefficient of variation of R-R interval.

A new non-linear method of assessing cardiac autonomic function was examined in a pharmacological experiment in ten healthy volunteers. The R-R interval data obtained under a control condition and in autonomic blockade by atropine and by propranolol were analyzed by each of the new methods employing Lorenz plot, spectral analysis and the coefficient of variation. With our method we derived two measures, the cardiac vagal index and the cardiac sympathetic index, which indicate vagal and sympathetic function separately. These two indices were found to be more reliable than those obtained by the other two methods. We anticipate that the non-invasive assessment of short-term cardiac autonomic function will come to be performed more reliably and conveniently by this method.