Increased Heart Rate Variability Response Among Infants with Reported Rhinorrhea and Watery Eyes: A Pilot Study

Figures & data

Table 1 Characteristics and HRV Outcomes Among Children Without and With RWWC

	Report of Rhinorrhea and/or Watery Eyes without Cold		P value
	No (n=28)	Yes (n=10)
Female sex, n [%]	13 [46]	6 [60]	0.46
Mean age at RWWC assessment (days) [minimum – maximum]	118 [92–142]	112 [86–144]	0.41
Mean age at HRV assessment (days) [minimum – maximum]	135 [125–157]	136 [126–144]	0.59
Time between assessment of RWWC and HRV (days) [minimum – maximum]	17 [0–51]	24 [0–55]	0.31
Median RMSSD during play episode (ms)	0.012	0.014	0.40
Median RMSSD during still-face episode (ms)	0.010	0.011	0.81
Median change in RMSSD between play and still face episodes (ms)	0.0	−0.0036	0.047

Figure 1 Prevalence of rhinorrhea/watery eyes without colds (RWWC) at age 3 months by tertile of change in heart rate variability (root mean square of the successive differences: RMSSD) measured between play and still-face challenge (n=38). Children with the greatest decrease in HRV were the most likely to have had a report of RWWC.

Figure 2 Hypothesized connection between autonomic dysregulation in infancy and airway hyperreactivity at school age. Components tested in this analysis are shown in red.