Comparison of recent methods of analyzing heart rate variability

We compare three recently applied methods for analyzing heart rate variability: detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), multiresolution wavelet analysis (WAV) and detrended time series analysis (DTS). In the comparison, both scale-dependent and scale-independent measures are considered. In agreement with recent results by Thurner et al.,⁹ we conclude that scale-dependent measures are well suited to separate healthy subjects from patients with heart disease. However, as regards the use in Kaplan-Meier cumulative survival curves, scale-independent measures (generally slope values) clearly outperform scale dependent measures (generally rms values). The comparison is mainly based on a database containing recordings from 428 patients with heart disease (myocardial infarct) and on a database containing 105 healthy subjects and 11 heart patients.