Immediate Effect of Cold Spinal Compress & Sham Spinal Compress on Heart Rate Variability in Healthy Volunteers: A Randomized Control Trial

Abstract

Hydrotherapy is one of the basic methods of treatment used in many forms, such as compresses, douches, tub baths, etc. Cold spinal compress is one of the treatment procedures used in hydrotherapy for lowering the blood pressure, and hence, there has been no study done to see the effects of cold spinal compress on HRV and other cardiovascular changes in healthy individuals. The objective of this study to assess the immediate effect of cold spinal compress and sham spinal compress on healthy volunteers. So in the method two hundred subjects were randomly divided into a study group (n=100) and a control group (n=100). The primary outcome was heart rate variability (HRV), and the secondary outcomes were blood pressure (BP), respiratory rate (RR), and heart rate (HR). The assessments were conducted immediately before and after the intervention. The results suggested that the cold spinal compress group showed a significant increase in the square root of the mean squared difference between adjacent N-N intervals (RMSSD) (p = 0.0035), the standard deviation of the N-N interval (SDNN) (p = 0.0090), consecutive normal sinus (NN) intervals exceeds 50 ms (NN50) (p = 0.0008), the mean of the R-R interval (Mean RRI) (p = 0.0001), a slight decrease in the ratio of low to high frequency power (LF/HF) (p=0.0430), low frequency (LF) (p=0.0350), there was significant reduction in heart rate (HR) (p =0.0000), systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p =0.0000), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (p =0.0000), and respiratory rate (RR) (p=0.0038) after the intervention. Whereas the sham spinal compress group showed no significant results except SDNN (p = 0.0341), RRI (p = 0.0001), HR (p = 0.0001), and RR (p = 0.0463).