Changes in heart rate variability among RF plastic sealer operators
✍ Scribed by Jonna Wilén; Urban Wiklund; Rolf Hörnsten; Monica Sandström
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 104 KB
- Volume
- 28
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0197-8462
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
In a previous study, we showed that operators of radiofrequency (RF) plastic sealers, RF operators (n = 35) had a lower heart rate during nighttime compared to a control group (n = 37). We have analyzed the heart rate variability (HRV) on the same group of people to better understand the possible underlying rhythm disturbances. We found a significantly increased total HRV and very low frequency (VLF) power during nighttime among the RF operators compared to a control group. Together with our previous finding of a significantly lower heart rate during nighttime among the RF operators compared to the controls, this finding indicates a relative increase in parasympathetic cardiac modulation in RF operators. This could in turn be due to an adaptation of the thermoregulatory system and the cardiac autonomic modulation to a long‐term low‐level thermal exposure in the RF operators. Bioelectromagnetics © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.