Early differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer's disease: Heart rate variability at mild cognitive impairment stage.

OBJECTIVE: Our study aimed to investigate whether heart rate variability (HRV) could be a useful diagnostic screening tool at MCI (mild cognitive impairment) stage of Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) from Alzheimer's disease (AD).

METHODS: This retrospective study used a selected sample from Ajou neurological registry. We identified MCI patients who underwent HRV testing at baseline, and who developed probable DLB (MCI-DLB: n = 23) or AD (MCI-AD: n = 32).

RESULTS: The MCI-DLB group exhibited significantly lower levels of almost all HRV parameters compared with the MCI-AD group. Fronto-executive function and visuospatial abilities were poorer in the MCI-DLB group, whereas the extent of verbal memory impairment was greater in the MCI-AD. Verbal memory score was negatively correlated with overall HRV parameters, and visuospatial function was positively correlated with the frequency domain of HRV. Receiver operating curve area under the curve (AUC) analysis revealed that the low frequency component was the best potential diagnostic marker (AUC = 0.88).

CONCLUSION: MCI-DLB patients exhibited greater cardiac autonomic dysfunction (as measured by HRV) and greater fronto-executive and visuospatial deficit compared with MCI-AD patients.

SIGNIFICANCE: HRV may be useful method to differentiate DLB from AD in patients with MCI; this would facilitate early disease-specific intervention.