The heart of most people beats in a regular, steady rhythm at a consistent rate. Heart rate variability occurs when the heart does not beat in a consistent rhythm. The American Heart Association says that when a cardiologist measures an irregular heart beat, incorrect conclusions can be made. In an effort to reduce these errors and standardize heart rate variability measuring, The European Society of Cardiology and The North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology were assigned the task of standardizing the methods of measurement.
Step 1
An electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) is used to record your heart rhythm. It is a non-invasive procedure performed at a cardiologist's office. The results of an EKG are printed onto a type of graph paper as one continuous line with peaks and valleys. You will need this heart rate printout to calculate any heart rate variables.
Step 2
The strongest heart beat that you can feel at the base of your wrist or on the side of your neck is when the ventricles of the heart contract. This contraction shows up on the EKG readout as a high spike in the line. The beginning of this spike is labeled with a capital letter Q. The peak of this spike is labeled with a capital R and the end of the spike with an S. Using the EKG readout, locate those QRS intervals.
Step 3
Circle the peaks, or R's, of the spikes.
Step 4
On the EKG paper, you will see small squares that make up the graph. Count the number of small squares between your first two circled R's.
Step 5
Divide 1,500 by the number of small squares. That number equals how many contractions your heart makes in one minute.
Step 6
Repeat Steps 4 and 5 for the remaining R's you have circled on your EKG printout.
Step 7
The numbers that you have gathered will be your heart rate variable. For example, if your first number is 104 and your next number is 120, your heart rate is varying by 16 contractions in a minute.
Things You'll Need
- Electrocardiogram machine
- Calculator
- Writing utensil
- Paper
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