Cardiorespiratory coupling as an early marker of cardiac autonomic dysfunction in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients

The aim of this study was to assess cardiorespiratory coupling (CRC) in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients (T2DM) and apparently healthy individuals, in order to test the hypothesis that this method can provide additional knowledge to the information obtained through the heart rate variability (HRV). A cross-sectional study was conducted in T2DM patients(T2DMG=32) and health controls (CON=32). For CRC analysis, the electrocardiogram, arterial pressure, and thoracic respiratory movement were recorded at rest in supine position and during active standing. Beat-to-beat series of heart period and systolic arterial pressure were analyzed with the respiratory movement signal via a traditional non-causal approach, such as squared coherence function. In this sample of T2DM, no differences in HRV were observed when compared to the CON, but the T2DMG showed a reduction in resting CRC. We conclude that in CRC in T2DM, reflected by the squared coherence may already be compromised even before HRV changes.