Monitoring of the Sympathetic/Vagal Balance Through Multiparametric Analysis of Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: HOLTER ECG monitoring.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Diabete Type 2, Heart Failure, Kidney Disease, Chronic, Cardiorenal Syndrome. Basic parameters: from 18 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Center list to be confirmed — check the primary protocol.
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
Unsure about the terms? Read our patient guide →
Official title
Monitoring of the Sympathetic/Vagal Balance Through Multiparametric Analysis of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2 DM), With or Without Heart Failure and/or Chronic Kidney Disease, or Cardiomyopathy, With Heart Failure and/or Cardio-renal Syndrome, All Receiving Optimized Pharmacological Treatment, Including a Sodium-Glucose Co-transporter 2 Inhibitor (SGLT2i).
Overview
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) plays a crucial role in cardiovascular regulation by modulating heart rate in response to endogenous and environmental stimuli. Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis has been widely used as a non-invasive tool to assess autonomic function and the balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic activity. Although the physiological interpretation of some HRV parameters remains debated-particularly the low-frequency (LF) spectral component as an index of sympathetic activation-HRV remains an important method for evaluating autonomic cardiovascular control. Reduced HRV has been associated with adverse outcomes in several pathological conditions and physiologically declines with aging, mainly due to progressive neuronal loss at central and spinal levels. Among conditions characterized by autonomic dysfunction, cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) represents a common complication of diabetes mellitus (DM) and metabolic syndrome. CAN, defined as impairment of autonomic control of the cardiovascular system, develops early in the disease course and is associated with increased mortality and a higher risk of cardiovascular and renal complications. Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), initially developed as glucose-lowering agents, have demonstrated significant cardiovascular and renal protective effects beyond glycemic control. Growing evidence suggests that these drugs exert sympathoinhibitory effects that may be beneficial not only in diabetic patients but also in conditions characterized by sympathetic overactivity. Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that SGLT2i influence autonomic regulation, including sympathetic control of renal function, with reported improvements in 24-hour blood pressure regulation and HRV parameters. Large randomized trials have further confirmed the cardioprotective effects of SGLT2i therapy. Studies such as EMBODY, EMPEROR-Reduced, and EMPEROR-Preserved have demonstrated improvements in HRV indices and significant reductions in cardiovascular death and hospitalization for heart failure, irrespective of diabetic status. Despite these findings, the mechanisms underlying these benefits remain incompletely understood. While reduced sympathetic activity has been proposed as a key mechanism, emerging evidence suggests that SGLT2i may also enhance vagal modulation. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate, in a larger population, the effects of SGLT2i therapy on sympathovagal balance using both spectral HRV parameters and additional indices, including the parasympathetic nervous system index (PNSi), sympathetic nervous system index (SNSi), and the Baevsky Stress Index.
Interventions
- Diagnostic test HOLTER ECG monitoring
Monitoring of the sympathetic/vagal balance through multiparametric analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) using 24 hours ECG HOLTER
Primary outcome measures
- Assessment of the sympathetic/vagal balance at baseline [Time frame: 24 hours]
- Changes the sympathetic/vagal balance during pharmacological treatment with SGLT2 inhibitors [Time frame: 24 months]
Secondary outcome measures (3)
- Evaluation of diabetic cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy [Time frame: 24 months]
- Correlation between improvement of heart failure or cardiorenal disease [Time frame: 24 months]
- Detection of improvement or normalization of cardiac autonomic balance [Time frame: 24 months]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Age over 18 years;
- Signed informed consent;
- in Sinus rhythm;
- Patients for whom HOLTER ECG monitoring is clinically indicated, to early identify the possible onset or progression of diabetic autonomic neuropathy, or ischemic changes, or potentially arrhythmogenic electrophysiological alterations;
- On optimized pharmacological treatment according to clinical practice, naïve to SGLT2 inhibitor therapy, prescribed according to the (1A) recommendations of the ESC 2023 guidelines.
Exclusion criteria
- Patients with atrial fibrillation or other arrhythmic burden incompatible with accurate HRV analysis;
- Pacemaker or ICD carriers;
- Immunodeficient patients or patients at risk of developing infections.
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Observational model
- Cohort
Study locations
Center list to be confirmed — check the primary protocol.
Publications
- Tarvainen MP, Niskanen JP, Lipponen JA, Ranta-Aho PO, Karjalainen PA. Kubios HRV--heart rate variability analysis software. Comput Methods Programs Biomed. 2014;113(1):210-20. doi: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2013.07.024. Epub 2013 Aug 6. PMID 24054542
- Brisinda D, Picerni M, Fenici P, and Fenici R, "Rapid assessment of cardiac autonomic modulation and adaptive stress responses: Automatic calculation of time-varying parasympathetic, sympathetic, and Baevsky stress indexes," Brain & Heart., vol. 2, no. 4, p. 3503, 2024, doi: 10.36922/bh.3503.
- Balcioglu AS, Celik E, Sahin M, Gocer K, Aksu E, Aykan AC. Dapagliflozin Improves Cardiac Autonomic Function Measures in Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy. Anatol J Cardiol. 2022 Nov;26(11):832-840. doi: 10.5152/AnatolJCardiol.2022.1934. PMID 35949125
- Zhou L, Niu M, Chen W, Hu Q, Chen Y, Geng X, Gu J. Effects of dapagliflozin on heart rate variability, cardiac function, and short-term prognosis in early-onset post-myocardial infarction heart failure. Front Cardiovasc Med. 2025 Jan 6;11:1490316. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2024.1490316. eCollection 2024. PMID 39834729
- Dimitriadis K, Pitsiori D, Alexiou P, Pyrpyris N, Sakalidis A, Beneki E, Iliakis P, Tatakis F, Theofilis P, Tsioufis P, Konstantinidis D, Aggeli K, Tsioufis K. Modulating Sympathetic Nervous System With the Use of SGLT2 Inhibitors: Where There Is Smoke, There Is Fire? J Cardiovasc Pharmacol. 2025 Jan 1;85(1):12-20. doi: 10.1097/FJC.0000000000001644. PMID 39436317
Identifiers
NCT: NCT07471802 · 27089