The main finding of our study is that treatment with caffeine does not affect HRV in newborns. Moreover, caffeine did not induce any significant changes in HR, SaO2 or T but did increase BF. Apparently, the maintenance dose of 2.5 mg/kg body mass to treat apnoea is not sufficient to exert any measurable effects on the above parameters, except for an expected increase in BF. To the best of our knowledge, our study is the first to have assessed the effect of caffeine on HRV in postmenstrually 37-week-old newborns.
The preterm newborns included in the only two available studies were significantly younger.
The only parameter that was affected by caffeine was BF. The increase of BF after the caffeine treatment was expected, as caffeine is a known stimulant of the respiratory centre. Contrary to our expectations, the association was only found at a 0° tilt, but not 30° head-up tilt, for which we have no feasible explanation; a continuous measurement of BF might have yielded a significant correlation also in a tilted position.
In our study, the values of SaO2 were comparable during and after the cessation of caffeine treatment. As the values were in physiological limits after the cessation of treatment, caffeine could have hardly induced an additional increase.
Caffeine reportedly increases the rate of metabolism and could thus potentially induce an increase in temperature. Nevertheless, the maintenance dose used in our study apparently was not sufficient to induce any measurable effects of caffeine on T since we found no differences in T during versus after the caffeine treatment. In fact, this is a favourable outcome in regard to interpretation of the HRV data; an elevated T namely affects HR and if this was the case in our study, it would interfere with the interpretation of the effects of caffeine on HRV.
In our study, the HR and HRV parameters obtained during caffeine treatment were comparable to the parameters after discontinuation of treatment. Since cardiogenic effects in terms of tachycardia only occur when applying toxic doses of caffeine, we conclude that a maintenance dose is not sufficient to impact the HR in newborns. Our results regarding the effect of caffeine on HR and HRV are in accordance with the study of Ulanovsky et al. who also didn’t show any impact of caffeine (applied in a loading dose 15–20 mg/kg/day, followed by a maintenance dose of 5–10 mg/kg/day) either on the HR or HRV in premature newborns. Yet, their sample may not be comparable to ours, as the newborns in their study [1] as well as in Huvanandana's [3] were younger than our newborns (gestational age 30.3 ± 2.5 weeks and 27.0 (23.6–33.3) weeks compared to 34 ± 5 weeks in our study) and also had significantly lower birth weight (1397 ± 458 g and 934 (552–2100) g compared to 2353 ± 914 g in our study) [1, 3]. On the other hand, Huvanandana et al. who compared the results of the linear and non-linear measurements of HRV in preterm newborns prior to and two hours after a loading caffeine dose, reported an increased HRV after caffeine administration when using non-linear, but not when using linear modelling, as it was analysed in our study. They suspected that linear metrics might not adequately capture potentially altered dynamics in the HR control [3]. Moreover, the influences of caffeine on the heart and the activity of ANS seem controversial as caffeine has also been shown to increase the HF component of HRV in adults, apparently increasing PNS activity [21, 27].
Although all parameters in our study were measured after the newborns were fed, and during the first 40 minutes of sleep, the HRV measurements could also be dependent on the sleep phase which we did not assess. Namely, the sleep onset in newborns corresponds to a REM phase, one sleep cycle lasts for about 50 minutes, and consists of equal consequent proportions of REM and non-REM sleep [28, 29]. Yiallourou et al., who assessed HRV in preterm and term newborns, found significantly increased values of both LF and TP spectra during REM compared to non-REM sleep [16]. Similarly, Takatani et al. showed higher LF and HF during REM than during non-REM in newborns [17]. To this end, assessing the phase of sleep in our newborns might be valuable for further interpretation.
We found a positive correlation between HRV (LF and TP but not HF) and PMA. A positive correlation between PMA and HRV supports the idea of ANS maturation with increasing age; yet, due to the narrow time frame (100 ± 26 hours) between the consecutive measurements the results should be interpreted with caution. Our results are accordant with our previous study [20], and with the study of Sahni et al., who showed a significant increase in HRV with increasing PMA in growing low birth weight infants, and implied an important role of ANS maturation in the control of cardiac activity [30]. Based on our observation, it seems that the maturation of ANS proceeds independently of caffeine. Contrary to our hypothesis and our observation from our previous study [20], where the study population was on average four weeks older, the HF did not significantly increase with increasing PMA in the present study. The discrepant findings could be due to limitations of the spectral analysis. In the present study, the mean HR was about 139 beats per minute. The Nyquist frequency of our sample was therefore 69.5 per minute, which is approximately 1.16 Hz. The upper limit of HF range, used for our analysis, was 1 Hz. Anything above this value was therefore a part of HF score that fell out of the analysis. Besides, the influence of respiratory sinus arrhythmia on HRV should be taken into consideration. As PNS has a much shorter delay than SNS on the heart that covariates with respiration, PNS is the main factor contributing to respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Many reports have confirmed that a considerable part of HRV, affected by PNS, actually arises from the respiratory sinus arrhythmia [18, 31], yet this phenomenon has not been adequately studied in newborns so far. We can speculate that HF did not significantly increase with PMA due to higher BF in newborns as compared to BF in adults. PNS, not fully developed in preterm newborns, thus contributes less to HRV. Moreover, our newborns presented with neonatal apnoea which is connected with respiratory disorder, increased work of breathing, or even abnormal breathing patterns; therefore, their breathing pattern might differently affect HF than the pattern in healthy newborns.
The limitation of our study is a small sample size. Another limitation is a rather long half-life of caffeine in preterm newborns – 87 ± 25 hours at 35 weeks PMA [32]. A prolonged half-life of caffeine could persist up to 38 weeks PMA due to immature liver function [33]. Accordingly, caffeine concentration might have been elevated in some newborns by the time of the control measurements. Unfortunately, we could not exceed this time frame due to limited duration of hospitalisations; however, by ensuring that 100 hours on average passed between the last dose of caffeine and the second measurement, this option seems rather unlikely. Furthermore, HF values above 1 Hz could not be included in the analyses due to the upper limit of the frequency range. As stated above, our study could be improved by a continuous measurement of BF, as well as blood pressure monitoring, and by measuring also EEG to determine the phase of sleep which might have impacted the outcome. Finally, a note should be given on the study design: a more reliable estimation of potential impact of caffeine on HRV would be obtained causally, i.e. by first assessing the parameters before caffeine was applied, and subsequently during the application of caffeine. As our newborns needed a treatment for apnoea, such design was not feasible. Another approach would be to check the effect of caffeine in healthy newborns which would enable a successive regimen of measurements; yet, application of caffeine in healthy is not acceptable from ethical point of view.