Cross-Spectral Analysis of Electrocardiographic and Nostril Airflow Signals Identifies Two Respiratory Frequencies of Heart Rate Modulation

Respiration is known to be a significant modulator of heart rate, and the high-frequency component in the power spectrum of heart rate variability (HRV) is believed to be caused mainly by respiration. To investigate the effect of respiration on heart rate, cross-spectral analysis of electrocardiographic (ECG) and nostril airflow signals was performed in healthy subjects to find the common features of ECG and respiration. Forty-two healthy subjects were included in this study. The autospectra of respective ECG and nostril airflow signals and the cross-spectra of ECG and nostril airflow signals were obtained and compared with the corresponding conventional HRV measures. We found that there were two spectral peaks at around 0.03 Hz and 0.3 Hz in the autospectrum of nostril airflow and the cross-spectrum of ECG and nostril airflow. In addition, the cross-spectral normalized high-frequency power (nHFPcs) was significantly larger than that of conventional HRV, while the cross-spectral normalized very low-frequency power (nVLFPcs), normalized low-frequency power (nLFPcs), and low-/high-frequency power ratio (LHRcs) were significantly lower than those of the conventional HRV. The cross-spectral nLFPcs and LHRcs had positive correlations with their corresponding HRV measures. We conclude that cross-spectral analysis of ECG and nostril airflow signals identifies two respiratory frequencies at around 0.03 Hz and below and around 0.3 Hz and can yield significantly enhanced nHFPcs and significantly suppressed nVLFPcs, as compared to their counterparts in conventional HRV. Both very low-frequency and high-frequency components of HRV are caused in part or mainly by respiration.