Heart rate variability follow-up during COVID-19 -a case report-

Abstract

Background To detect an early increase in the inflammatory response might prove to be vital for mitigating the deleterious effects of the disease over time. Case A 52-year-old obese man with moderate asthma and hypertension, who developed COVID-19 and had moderate symptoms, used a wearable device to record heart rate variability (HRV) during his illness. He had low parasympathetic tone, which decreased daily until it reached almost 2 standard deviations (SD) below normal values at the end of the second week. His sympathetic tone increased from > 3 SD to > 5 SD. Conclusions These findings suggest an altered modulation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems in COVID-19, such that the sympathetic tone is augmented and the parasympathetic tone is reduced. Population norms of COVID-19 infections should be further studied over the short-term and using 24 h HRV measurements.

Keywords

• ambulatory monitoring
• autonomic nervous system
• computer-assisted signal processing
• covid-19
• heart rate
• wearable electronic devices