CLOSED LOOP BIOFEEDBACK OF HEART RATE VARIABILITY AND PACED BREATHING EFFICACY EVALUATION IN PATIETS WITH ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

Abstract

In 25 patients with arterial hypertension (11 women and 14 men, mean age 56,8 ± 5,7 years), biofeedback efficacy in a closed loop of heart rate variability (HRV) and paced breathing (PB) in the control of blood pressure (BP ) and heart rate (HR) was studied. Patients were divided into 2 groups: 1 — biofeedback group (13 patients) and 2 — and the comparison group (12 patients). Patients in the biofeedback group underwent 5 biofeedback sessions, to patients in the comparison group only 2 biofeedback sessions were performed — on admission and before discharge from hospital. The effectiveness of biofeedback was evaluated by comparing systolic and diastolic blood pressure values (SBP and DBP, respectively), HR and the integral biofeedback quality index (BQI) on admission and discharge from hospital in both groups. The results showed that the closed loop biofeedback of HRV and the PB allows to further reduce the SBP, DBP and HR with medical therapy background, and the BQI positive dynamics in the biofeedback group indicates the existence of the regulation system «training» effect as a result of biofeedback.