2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Assessment of autonomic nerve activity during sleep in severely retarded children to identify factors of sudden death.

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21890289
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Community health/Gerontological nurisng
Research Institution	University of Hyogo (2010) Kansai University of Social Welfare (2009)
Principal Investigator	MATSUI Gakuyo University of Hyogo, 看護学部, 助教 (70549211)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	重症心身障害児 / 突然死 / 心拍変動 / 自律神経活動 / 活動量計測計 / 在宅看護
Research Abstract	We studied the heart rate variability from 20:00 to 8:00 for three days in eighteen severely retarded children (9 boys and 9 girls: mean age 12.1±4.6 years old) to assess the autonomic nerve activity during sleep. LF/HF ratio was significantly higher in the children who required an oral, nasal or trachea suction. This result suggests the possibility that stress of suction causes sympathetic hyperactivity and affects the cardiac autonomic nervous activity during sleep in severely retarded children.