Long-term heart rate variability as a predictor of patient age

Patients age has been estimated in healthy population by means of the heart rate variability (HRV) parameters to assess the potentiality of HRV indexes as a biomarker of age. A long-term analysis of HRV has been performed, computing linear time and frequency domain parameters as well as non-linear metrics, in a dataset of 113 healthy subjects (age range 20–85 years old). The principal component analysis has been used to capture age-related influence on HRV and then three different models have been applied to predict subjects age: a robust linear regressor (RLR), a feedforward neural network (FFNN) and a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN). A good prediction of patient age has been obtained (using all principal components, the Pearson correlation coefficient between predicted and real age: RLR = 0.793; FFNN = 0.872; RBFNN = 0.829), even if an overestimation in younger subjects and an underestimation in older ones may be observed. The important and complementary contribution of non-linear indexes to aging related HRV modifications has also been underlined.