Respiratory modulation of heart beat-to-beat interval in diabetic patients

We have analyzed simultaneous recordings of respiration and heartbeat intervals in diabetic patients and control subjects. Our main findings are that in diabetic patients the heart beat-to-beat interval variability and cardiorespiratory crosscorrelation are decreased, the autocorrelation time of the interval series is increased, and the phase relation of the respiration with the heartbeat interval oscillations is often reversed in comparison with the control subjects. We have been able to reproduce the data using a biophysical model in which the time dependent input signal to the sinoatrial node was constituted of quasiperiodic and aperiodic components. The quasiperiodic input was obtained from the recording of the respiratory signal and the aperiodic input was obtained from selected realizations of correlated noise. Our study indicates that both input components to the sinoatrial node are modified in diabetic patients.