Proposal of Procedure for Heart Rate Variability Monitoring in Oncologic Patients Using a New Technology

Abstract

Heart rate variability has become an important marker for prognosis not only in cardiovascular, diabetic or renal patients, but also in oncological patients. Heart rate variability as an indicator of autonomic nervous system dysfunction is associated with cancer progression, cancer-related-pain intensity, cancer-related fatigue and even quality of life. Moreover, heart rate variability is proposed as a marker for survival in oncological patients. Usually heart rate variability is determined by ECG Holter or ECG monitoring. These explorations are reliable, validated, but they are time-consuming, expensive, complex and the medical staff who will use them needs proper training. A new, easy, non-invasive, cost-effective method is wrist-worn photoplethysmography PulseOn. PuleOn was already been compared with ECG Holter in healthy individuals and the heart rate variability indicators were similar in both measurements. Confirming the validity of a simpler method for determining HRV in oncological patients will increase the quality of care of oncological patients. Also will increase the quality of their monitoring in terms of tumor progression, cancer-related-pain intensity, chemotherapy toxicity without costly explorations. The high ability of wrist-worn pulse wave to transmit the data from PulseOn to a dispositive with Android OS makes PulseOn a simple tool in telemonitoring oncological patients.