TURKISH JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS, cilt.53, sa.1, ss.59-66, 2011 (SCI-Expanded)
Neurocardiogenic syncope (NS) is a common clinical problem during childhood. In order to characterize the autonomic profile in syncopal children, we evaluated heart rate variability (HRV) of 27 patients, ages 8-17 years, in an asymptomatic period. HRV was calculated over a 24-hour (h) period for the time-domain indices and frequency-domain indices. The obtained results were compared to values in 27 healthy children, ages 10-17 years. Patients with syncope did not have significantly different HRV values in comparison to healthy children. After behavior modification and education, HRV assessment was repeated six months later in the symptomatic group under follow-up, and we found no significantly different values.