Background

The development of a microcomputer-based device permits quick, simple, and noninvasive quantification of the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) during quiet breathing.

Methods and results

We prospectively and serially measured the radionuclide left ventricular ejection fraction and the RSA amplitude in 34 cancer patients receiving up to nine monthly bolus treatments with doxorubicin hydrochloride (60 mg/m2). Of the eight patients who ultimately developed symptomatic doxorubicin-induced congestive heart failure, seven (87.5%) demonstrated a significant decline in RSA amplitude; five of 26 subjects without clinical symptoms of cardiotoxicity (19.2%) showed a similar RSA amplitude decline. On average, significant RSA amplitude decline occurred 3 months before the last planned doxorubicin dose in patients destined to develop clinical congestive heart failure.

Conclusion

Overall, RSA amplitude abnormality proved to be a more specific predictor of clinically significant congestive heart failure than did serial resting radionuclide ejection fractions.