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Abstract Heart rate and blood presure are under continuous autonomic control. In patients with chronic heart failure changes in autonomic functions are often present in the from of sympathetic activation and reduced vagal activity both are associated with the occurrence of ventricular arrhythmia and reduces the threshold for ventricular fibrillation. So the autonomic changes found m patients with chronic heart failure can set the stage for sudden cardiac death. There fore measurement of HRV provides a non invasive method to obtain reliable and reproducible information on autonomic modulation of the heart and has a conceptual basis in that it identifies patients with a potential autonomic substrate for lethal arrhythmia and subsequently sudden cardiac death. The aim of the pressent study is to investigate the usefulness of heart rate variability and diastolic filling pattern in the assessment of patients with chronic heart failure. In the present study it was shown that patients with chronic heart failure have greatly reduced heart rate variability measurements and these results are strikingly abnormaly reduced compared with findings in normal subjects. |