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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Neurol.
Sec. Autonomic Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1499582
This article is part of the Research Topic Neurology and Connective Tissue View all 15 articles

Tracking changes in autonomic function by coupled analysis of wavelet-based dispersion of heart rate variability and gastrointestinal symptom severity in individuals with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

Provisionally accepted
Sarah A. Mathena Sarah A. Mathena 1,2*Robert M. Allen Robert M. Allen 2*Christina Laukaitis Christina Laukaitis 3,4,5Jennifer G Andrews Jennifer G Andrews 2
  • 1 University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
  • 2 Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, United States
  • 3 Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, Department of Bioengineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, United States
  • 4 Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Champaign, Illinois, United States
  • 5 Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Urbana, Illinois, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    People with hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) experience multisystemic dysfunction with varying severity and unpredictability of flare occurrence. Cohort studies suggest that individuals with hEDS have a higher risk for autonomic dysfunction. Clinically, the gold standard for assessing autonomic function uses heart rate variability (HRV) assessment from 24-hour Holter monitor electrocardiogram data, but this is costly and can only be done in short durations. Since their advent, biometric devices have been used as a non-invasive method for tracking HRV to assess autonomic function. This study aimed to understand the intra-and inter-individual variability in autonomic function, and to associate this variability with gastrointestinal symptoms in individuals with hEDS using wearable devices. We studied 122 days of biometric device data from 26 individuals, including 35 days flagged as high GI dysfunction and 48 days as low GI dysfunction. Utilizing wavelet analysis to assess the frequency domains of heart rate signals, we compared participants HRV data for High, Low, Very Low (VLF) and Ultra Low (ULF) frequency domains associated with physiological differences. We found a significant difference between the VLF and ULF signals on high GI symptom days compared with low symptoms days for 92% and 76% of signals sampled, respectively. Our pilot data show a change in HRV for individuals with hEDS experiencing a flare day for a single body system. Future research will evaluate the relationship between longitudinal multisystemic symptom severity fluctuations and HRV.

    Keywords: Ehlers Danlos syndrome, autonomic dysfunction, Heart rate variability, Wavelet, gastrointestinal, biometrics

    Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 18 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mathena, Allen, Laukaitis and Andrews. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Sarah A. Mathena, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States
    Robert M. Allen, Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85724, Arizona, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.