Correlation between cardiac chronotropic function and anxiety

AIM To explore the correlation between cardiac functions and anxiety and to provide evidence for clinical diagnosis of chronotropic incompetence. METHODSOne hundred and one patients were randomly selected from April 2013 to December 2014 in our hospital, including 63 males and 38 females. ECG, blood pressure, heart rate and blood pressure changes during exercise, exercise time and amount of exercise were recorded. Maximum heart rate, chronotropic response index and decrease of heart rate after exercise were measured and calculated. Self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) was used and all data were analyzed with SPSS 17.0 software. RESULTSAmong the 101 patients, 39 demonstrated anxiety and 62 had no anxiety. A significant difference was found in peak heart rate/maximal heart rate, heart rate reserve and chronotropic response index between anxiety group and nonanxiety group. Logistic regression analysis showed no significant correlation between anxiety and peak heart rate/maximal heart rate, chronotropic response index, heart rate reserve and metabolic reserve. The correlation analysis of anxiety scores and cardiac chronotropic functions showed that anxiety scores and exercise time were negatively correlated but positively correlated with peak heart rate/maximum heart rate and chronotropic response index. CONCLUSIONAnxiety can affect cardiac chronotropic functions in patients with coronary heart disease through its effect on the autonomic nervous system, which will lead to the emergence of false negative results of chronotropic incompetence.