UDC

612.178:612.662:613.11

Authors

Meygal Aleksandr Yuryevich, Institute of High-Tech Biomedical Solutions, Petrozavodsk State University (Petrozavodsk, Russia) 

Abstract

The paper studied heart rate variability (HRV) using nonlinear cardiointervalogram (CIG) parameters in 13 young women during four phases of menstrual cycle (MC): early and late follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases in spring and autumn. We calculated 10 nonlinear CIG parameters (various types of entropy; correlation dimension of the phase space; recurrence and determinism; fluctuation parameters after detrending; Poincaré plot) using Kubios HRV 2.2. We found that CIG correlation dimension (CD) during ovulation dropped to 2.2 as compared to other MC phases (~ 3, p<0.05) as well as in spring (to 2.7) as compared to autumn (~ 3, p<0.05). CD was at the lowest at ovulation in spring (dropped to 1.7), while during the ovulation phase in autumn CD stayed unchanged. Moreover, during ovulation in spring we observed increased recurrence and reduced entropy of CIG. The highest CD values were recorded in autumn at the early follicular phase (>3.5). Thus, during ovulation in spring the heart rhythm is more regular and predictable. This indicates “simplification” of the cardiac rhythm generator, namely, reduced number of independent oscillators (sensory inputs regulating the heart work) from 3 to 2 inputs, while the parasympathetic nervous system became less involved in heart work regulation, with the sympathetic nervous system taking over.

Keywords

menstrual cycle, electrocardiography, entropy, dimension, recurrence, heart rate variability, cardiointervalogram.

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