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Table 6 Time domain indices in the different groups based on repeated ECG recordings over time

From: Time and frequency domain analysis of heart rate variability in cattle affected by bovine spongiform encephalopathy

Groupa

Mean heart rate [bpm]

Median (range)

Deviation from mean interval [%]

Median (range)

VVTI

Median (range)

1. Female control

60 (45-104)

N = 9

42.6% (10.6%-74.3%)

N = 8

10.8 (5.1-13.4)

N = 8

2. Female negative

50 (42-64)

N = 9

48.1% (30.7%-76.5%)

N = 9

6.4 (3.9-9.9)

N = 9

3. Female positive

56 (43-70)

N = 2

62.1% (40.9%-83.3%)

N = 2

7.4 (6.2-8.7)

N = 2

4. Male control

66 (57-106)

N = 22

26.3% (13.1%-44.9%)

N = 22

11.4 (7.6-19.4)

N = 22

5. Male negative

73 (49-114)

N = 51

27.2% (8.3%-53.1%)

N = 47

13.4 (5.4-28.0)

N = 47

6. Male positive

66 (58-94)

N = 16

29.0% (14.1%-57.6%)

N = 15

13.0 (7.0-22.1)

N = 15

P -value (Kruskal-Wallis test)

Significant differences between groups (Dunn's test)

< 0.0001

2 & 4 (*), 5 (***)

0.0005

2 & 4 (*), 5 (**)

< 0.0001

2 & 4 (*), 5 (***), 6 (**)

  1. a Negative: cattle inoculated with tissue/body fluids from BSE/scrapie-challenged or naturally infected BSE cases as well as reported BSE suspects that were negative for BSE by postmortem tests.
  2. Positive: challenged or naturally infected BSE suspects that were positive for BSE by postmortem tests. BSE-positive female cattle were included for completeness, even though the total number was too low for any statistical comparison.
  3. N = Number of examined cattle
  4. Dunn's post test P values are expressed as * (P < 0.05), ** (P < 0.01) and *** (P < 0.001).