Power Law Behavior of RR-Interval Variability in Healthy Middle-Aged Persons, Patients With Recent Acute Myocardial Infarction, and Patients With Heart Transplants

Abstract

Myocardial infarction or denervation of the heart causes a steeper slope and decreased height of the power law regression relation between log(power) and log(frequency) of RR-interval fluctuations. Individually and, especially, combined, the power law regression parameters are excellent predictors of death of any cause or arrhythmic death and predict these outcomes better than the traditional power spectral bands.