JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) is known as the critical regulatory system for the pregnancy-induced adaptations, if fail to function may lead to life-threatening pregnancy complications. Understanding and monitoring the hence underlying mechanism of action for these complications is necessary.

Objective:

We systematically reviewed the literature concerned with the associations between Heart Rate Variability (HRV), as an ANS biomarker, with pregnancy complications.

Methods:

Data sources: A comprehensive search performed in PubMed, Medline Completion, CINAHL Completion, Web of Science Core Collection Classic, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS databases in Feb 2022 with no time span limitation. Eligibility criteria: Studies that concerned with the association between any pregnancy complications and HRV, with/out control group. Data collection and analysis: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (Prisma) guideline was applied for review preparation, and Covidence software was used for study selection process. For data synthesizes, Popay guideline was considered.

Results:

Finally, 12 studies with 6656 participants were included. Despite the methodological divergency which hindered comprehensive comparison, our findings suggests that ANS is linked with some of the common pregnancy complications including fetal growth. But the existing studies did not support the ANS association with gestational diabetes mellitus. Studies that linked pulmonary and central nervous system disorders to ANS function were not sufficient to be able to conclude upon.

Conclusions:

The review highlights the importance of understanding and monitoring the underlying mechanism of ANS in pregnancy-induced adaptations and the need for further research with robust methodology in this area. Clinical Trial: N.A.