Assessment of Autonomic Function for Healthy and Diabetic Patients Using Entrainment Methods and Spectral Technique

The main objective of this paper is to assess the autonomic function of healthy subjects and diabetic patients by using autopower spectra and measurement of gain frequency response between breathing signals at different rates as input and heart rate variability signals (HRV) as output. Twenty healthy subjects (39± 3.6) years old and twenty one diabetic patients (41±2.4) years old participated in this study. The subject lies on a bed where Electrocardiogram (ECG), heart rate variability signals (HRV) extracted from ECG and respiration signals at different breathing rates were measured and recorded. The autopower spectra of breathing rates and HRV signals were produced using the auto-regressive method. The gain frequency response for both healthy and diabetic groups was obtained. The effect of respiration signals at different rates on the auto-power of HRV signals significant specially for healthy subjects on a rate of 6 cycle /min (6 c pm or 0.1 Hz). However, this effect is reduced in all diabetic patients examined. The gain response of healthy group shows high gain with two peaks at 0.1 Hz and 0.2 Hz and high standard deviation (SD).