Bijoor, Shilpa N and *, Subbalakshmi NK and Banerjee, Sourjya (2016) Influence of Cancer and Its Severity on Vagal Nerve Activity Assessed By Time Domain Measures of Heart Rate Variability. Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, 7 (3). pp. 1215-1219. ISSN 0975-8585

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Abstract

Recent research is probing in to association between poor prognosis of cancer and vagal nerve activity. To investigate the influence of severity of cancer on Indices of vagal function namely E:I ratio and r-MSSD. 184 patients with solid malignant tumor and 150 controls were studied. Severity of cancer was defined based on the TNM staging. Accordingly study subjects were divided into: Early stage (TNM Stage I and II combined) and Advanced stage (TNM stage III and IV combined). E: I ratio during deep breathing and r-MSSD during resting were determined from one minute lead II electrocardiogram. Data was analyzed using Students unpaired t, Mann- Whitney U statistic and Kruskal Wallis tests. p value <0.05 considered significant. Results: E:I ratio, r-MSSD was lower in cancer patients compared to control (p<0.0001). E:I ratio and r-MSSD was lower in cancer patients with early and advanced stage of cancer compared to control (p<0.0001). In study subjects E:I ratio and r-MSSD was lower in advanced stage compared to early stage (p<0.05; 0.0001, respectively). Vagal function is reduced in cancer patients compared to healthy subjects. Severity of cancer affects vagal activity. Keywords: Vagal nerve activity, Cancer severity, TNM stages

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