Original ArticlesFeatures of Heart Rate Variability Capture Regulatory Changes During Kangaroo Care in Preterm Infants
Section snippets
Methods
The Máxima Medical Center has an 18-bed, level III, tertiary neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with private rooms in which kangaroo care is practiced routinely. Parents are encouraged to perform kangaroo care for durations of 60 minutes or longer. Routine patient monitoring continues during kangaroo care, including electrocardiography (ECG), HR, RR (using impedance pneumography), SpO2, and temperature (measured in the diaper). The patient monitors (IntelliVue MX 800; Philips, Hamburg,
Results
We analyzed data from the 30-minute stable epochs during kangaroo care for changes in vital signs and HRV features compared with the pre-kangaroo care incubator period, in a total of 191 kangaroo care sessions provided to 11 preterm infants. For vital signs, small changes were seen in HR and RR (P <.01). For the pre-kangaroo care and during-kangaroo care epochs, the median (interdecile) values for HR were 159 (146-170) and 156 (145-167), respectively, and 49 (42-62) and 47(38-61),
Discussion
In this study, we analyzed the effect of kangaroo care on features of HRV by investigating 191 kangaroo care sessions in 11 preterm infants. Six features―SDNN, RMSSD, pNN50, SDDec, HF power, and LF/HF―showed statistically significant and clearly visible differences in the during-kangaroo care period compared with the pre-kangaroo care period, and changes in vital signs were small and clinically irrelevant. Although stable vital signs during kangaroo care have been reported previously,1, 2, 7
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The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
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Contributed equally.