Early detection of cardiac involvement in thalassemia: From bench to bedside perspective

Table 6 Summary of the relationship between heart rate variability and cardiac function in thalassemia major

Population/size	Type of study	Findings	Correlation	Ref.
34 TM patients and	Prospective	None of the echocardiographic parameters was correlated with HRV	×	Rutjanaprom et al[20]
20 healthy subjects
32 TM patients and	Prospective	Reduced HRV were described in TM despite no echocardiographic abnormality	×	Kardelen et al[77]
46 control subjects
19 TM patients and	Cross sectional	No correlation between HRV parameters and echocardiographic parameters	×	Franzoni et al[75]
19 healthy volunteers
20 TM patients	Prospective	Abnormal HRV in TM with no evidence of ventricular dysfunction	×	De Chiara et al[78]

TM: Thalassemia major; HRV: Heart rate variability.