- Heart Rate Variability in Congestive Heart Failure

The incidence and progression of heart failure are associated with an increasing severity of autonomic derangements, speci­cally a compensatory increase in activity of the sympathetic nervous system and a decrease in activity of the parasympathetic nervous system (Floras, 2009; Binkley et al., 1991). In this simplistic model, left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction elicits an increase in sympathetic out¬ow directed at the entire vascular …