There's a lot to love about our latest HRV Add-On for LabChart!
First of all, it makes life simple. HRV 2.0 lets you do everything for heart rate variability in one place. There is no need to import or export data or fuss about switching between separate data acquisition and analysis programs. You can acquire data, detect beats, exclude ectopics and view time and frequency domain analyses all in the same module. Watch our video for an overview:
As for ectopic beats, HRV 2.0 makes them easy to deal with. Beats can be classified by both RR interval and waveform morphology and are simple to exclude using the Beat Classifier View. And because ECG recording and RR interval analysis occurs in the same program, you can check your beat placement directly against the ECG waveform. This gives you the most information possible about whether an errant beat was caused by noise or was a genuine ectopic. It allows you to select the optimal position if you choose to adjust the beat or to safely remove the beat altogether.
Perhaps most importantly, we've changed the underlying algorithm used in HRV 2.0. The Lomb-Scargle periodogram is perfect for HRV analysis as it does not require an evenly sampled data set. It doesn’t mind if there is a gap in the data due to ectopics. Therefore, there is no interpolation or data pre-processing required to get accurate frequency domain analysis. Take a look at this article comparing the FFT algorithm to the Lomb-Scargle periodogram
Read more about HRV in research, the HRV Add-On or contact a local representative to learn more.