Abstract:Objective To investigate the applications of deceleration capacity of heart rate(DC) in assessment of autonomic nervous function in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy(HCM) and discuss its clinical value in predicting high-risk patients.MethodsNineteen HCM patients’ and 21 normal persons’ 24 h ambulatory electrocardiography data were analyzed. The two groups were regarded as observation group and control group respectively. DC and HRV time domain indexes (SDNN, rMSSD) were compared between two groups of patients while the relationship between DC and HRV indexes of the observation group were studied with statistical software.ResultsDC and HRV time domain indexes of the observation group were lower than those of control group, with statistically significant differences.The incidence of abnormal DC in observation group was as high as 84.2%, significantly higher than that of control group(P<0.05). It was implied by relevant analytic results that in observation group, DC was positively correlated with SDNN (r=0.618,P<0.05) as well as rMSSD(r=0.557,P<0.05).The incidence of sudden death in DC high-risk group was significantly higher than that of DC low-risk group during a 48-month follow-up.ConclusionDC of HCM patients significantly decreases and has good positive correlation with HRV time domain indexes(SDNN, rMSSD).Therefore, DC can be utilized as a new reliable index for quantitatively detecting autonomic nervous function of HCM patients and screening high-risk cases among them.