Muscle IQ - Case Study: Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Response to Manual Therapy in a Patient with Chronic Low Back Pain

December Edition

Summary:

In this case study, heart rate variability (HRV) was measured before and after an individualized specific manual therapy treatment for a patient with chronic pain to assess autonomic nervous system response. Pre-treatment HRV values showed an RMSSD of 26.21 ms and SDNN of 38.75 ms, while post-treatment readings demonstrated notable increases to an RMSSD of 41.97 ms and SDNN of 48.55 ms. Low frequency power rose from 247.02 to 1039.19, with high frequency remaining relatively stable (331.35 to 326.33). These findings indicate a shift toward greater parasympathetic activity and improved autonomic balance following manual therapy. The observed increases in HRV metrics suggest that the specific manual therapy treatment used on this patient promoted relaxation and physiological resilience in this patient with chronic low back pain.  Other studies have shown that HRV is a reliable and objective tool for identifying autonomic imbalance in individuals with chronic low back pain.  This study suggests that HRV can be  a useful biomarker for evaluating the effectiveness of specific treatments for restoring autonomic imbalance in patients with chronic low back pain.