Assessing Autonomic Nervous System Function by Pulse Rate Variability in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Heart rate variability (HRV) is measured to analyze autonomic nervous system function in humans, and pulse rate variability (PRV) assessed using the photoplethysmography method with a pulse oximeter has been proposed as a surrogate for HRV. To examine whether PRV is compatible with HRV in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we simultaneously measured HRV with an electrocardiogram and PRV with a pulse oximeter in patients with COPD, and compared low-frequency and high-frequency components computed from HRV and PRV as indicators of autonomic nervous system function. In a Bland–Altman analysis, the low-frequency component computed from HRV exhibited good consistency with that computed from PRV. The high-frequency component showed a significant fixed error but relatively good consistency. Our results indicate that autonomic nervous system function may be estimated with the low-frequency component by measuring PRV with a pulse oximeter in patients with COPD.