Exploratory-retrospective study to measure the effects of the air pollutants over the heart rate variability (HRV) in a university community

Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) allows determining a decrease in the cardiac autonomic function. This has been associated with environmental pollution, especially with particulate matter smaller than 10 microns (PM10), carbon monoxide (CO) and ozone (O3) [1]. We examined the relationship between those pollutants and some parameters of the HRV in time and frequency domains. Intervals of 5 minutes were extracted from Holters of 89 adult subjects greater than 39 years old. In the analysis were included the standard deviation (SD) of the normal-to-normal intervals, the low frequency (LF: Low Frequency 0.05 to 0.15 Hz), high frequency (HF: High Frequency 0.15 to 0.4 Hz) and the ratio of LF: HF, and other variables such as temperature and relative humidity. The 24-hours Holters were taken from 89 female and male workers of a university community in Mexicali, B.C., México. Moving averages of the air contaminants in periods of 8, 24 and 48 hours were examined to determine their effects in the HRV of this population.