Exposure to wood smoke increases arterial stiffness and decreases heart rate variability in humans

Table 2 Baseline haemodynamics and heart rate variability

	Pre exposure filtered air	Pre exposure wood smoke
Systolic blood pressure, mmHg	126.1±3.7	126.1±5.1
Diastolic blood pressure, mmHg	69.1±2.0	69.8±2.3
Heart rate, beats per minute	73.6±4.2	69.6±3.2
Pulse wave velocity, m/s	6.0±0.17	5.9±0.19
Augmentation index, %	−4.1±2.9	−7.0±2.6
SDNN, ms	73.9 (34.4-123.3)	87.7 (65.2-109.9)
RMSSD, ms	46.0 (20.6-65.1)	62.8 (35.9-80.5)
PNN50, %	23.7 (1.9-42.0)	35.0 (13.6-46.2)
Triangular index, bin size 1:128	14.4 (9.6-21.4)	19.9 (16.1-23.2)
HFn, ms	26.5 (14.3-40.6)	29.2 (13.2-50.6)
LFn, ms	72.5 (57.1-79.9)	69.2 (47.3-84.4)
HF/LF, ratio	0.37 (0.17-0.71)	0.43 (0.12-1.08)

Data expressed as mean ± SEM or median with inter quartile range. SDNN standard deviation of successive NN intervals, RMSSD root-mean square of successive NN interval differences; HFn high frequency components expressed as normalised units, LFn low frequency components expressed as normalised units, HF/LF high frequency/low frequency. There were no significant differences in any parameter pre exposure (p>0.05 for all). Values for heart rate, blood pressure and arterial stiffness from paired Student’s t-test and values for heart rate variability from Wilcoxon signed rank test.

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