Periodicità circadiana del disordine nella variabilità giornaliera della frequenza cardiaca umana: Ulteriore dimostrazione tramite approccio cronobiologico ai valori dell'esponente alfa stimato sugli intervalli sinusali R-R

OBJECTIVE: The present study is aimed at giving a further demonstration that the disorder in human heart rate variability is characterized by a circadian periodicity. Such an evidence has been provided by estimating the alpha exponent of the Levy's stable distribution approximated to the histogram of the differences between the durations of two adjacent sinusal R-R intervals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The purpose has been pursued by estimating the alpha exponent on fragments of one hour of the Holter electrocardiogram executed in 10 clinically healthy subjects (5 males and 5 females, ranging in age from 23 to 30 years). RESULTS: The chronobiological analysis of the hourly-qualified values of the alpha exponent has demonstrated a significant circadian rhythm for this coefficient. CONCLUSIONS: The significant circadian periodicity of the alpha exponent is a further evidence that the disorder in human heart rate variability, herein represented by the extreme variability of the differences between the durations of two consecutive sinusal R-R intervals, is characterized by a periodic recursivity.