Heart rate found to be more variable in people with fibromyalgia, according to new study

A new study, published in Annals of Rehabilitation Medicine, has found that people with fibromyalgia have significantly higher variability in the interval between consecutive heartbeats compared to healthy people.

Similar findings have been reported in the past in previous studies, however observational differences among them results in a lack of consensus and it was not always possible to distinguish differences in the heart rate of people with and without fibromyalgia using the classical way to analyse heart beat variability.

However, this new study, called “Heart rate variability for quantification of autonomic dysfunction in fibromyalgia” describes a new statistical method of analysis that is able to detect a consistent difference between groups of people with fibromyalgia groups and those in good health.

With this new method, symptoms which are usually assessed subjectively by a questionnaire called COMPASS31, can now be quantified objectively. “This is a valuable parameter for autonomic nervous system function and can be used to quantify subjective autonomic symptoms in patients with fibromyalgia,” the researchers wrote.

For the study at the Seoul Medical Centre in Korea, 16 people with fibromyalgia between the age of 37 – 60, and 16 age-matched health people, had their heart rate variability measured under normal breathing and rate controlled breathing conditions, with each asked to take six breaths per minute.

No significant differences in heart rate variability under either breathing condition were observed between the two groups using simple comparisons. However, combining those comparisons into a single statistical variable resulted in significant and reproducible differences between them. These differences were independent from the breathing condition.

According to the authors, the next step in strengthening these findings would be to analyse a larger group of people.

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