DOES HEART-RATE-VARIABILITY CHANGE IN ANGINA-PECTORIS PATIENTS TREATED WITH SPINAL-CORD STIMULATION

To determine whether spinal cord stimulation has any effect on the aut onomic nervous tone of the heart, heart rate variability was used as a n indicator of autonomic nervous control of the heart. The components time domain and power spectral analyses of heart rate variability were measured in 21 patients with angina pectoris. Twenty-four-hour Holter recordings were obtained before and after 12 months with spinal cord stimulation. No significant attenuation of time domain or spectral com ponents of heart rate variability analyses were found, Apparently, spi nal cord stimulation does not influence the autonomic tone of the hear t.