The Role of Heart Rate Variability in the Management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Scoping Review

Complications associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) have an unclear pathophysiology. Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is a potent modality for monitoring autonomic nervous system function and may give insight into the timing of flares and complication development. Existing literature suggests a link between IBD complications and inflammation as well as inflammation and HRV. However, research directly exploring the relationship between HRV and IBD complications is limited. This review aims to examine the state of the science as it pertains to the relationship between HRV and IBD complications highlighting current knowledge gaps to guide future research. A search was conducted using Pubmed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science and Google Scholar using the following search string with MeSH terms and common terms (“Heart Rate Variability” OR “HRV” AND (“Inflammatory Bowel Disease” OR IBD”). Inclusion Criteria consisted of studies that have objective heart rate variability data and mentioned IBD or its complications. Exclusion Criteria included case reports and fetal studies.Heart Rate variability is a promising modality to monitor and potential predict IBD flares and complications. Vagal Nerve stimulation is a novel modality to rebalance autonomic tone that may be monitored with HRV. There is a current lack of direct research on HRV and IBD complications that should be further explored especially in regards to severe complications like enteropathic arthritis.