PR: ActiGraph Announces Heart Rate Variability Measurement Support

Pensacola, FL-January 28, 2013 – ActiGraph, a leading provider of objective patient monitoring solutions for the global research community, announced today that it now supports the collection of heart rate variability measurements with the release of its ActiLife software version 6.5.

ActiGraph’s newest generation of wireless activity monitoring devices can now be paired with a compatible wireless heart rate monitor to deliver heart rate RR intervals in addition to beats per minute and objective physical activity and sleep/wake measurements such as energy expenditure, activity intensity, steps taken, amount of sleep and body position. Heart rate RR intervals, which are the intervals of time that elapse between the R-waves (peaks) of successive heartbeats, can be used to determine how the variation between consecutive heartbeats changes over time. Heart rate variability is widely regarded as a strong predictor of survival after heart attack and provides valuable insight on nervous system activity and cardiovascular health.

“Many of our clients are involved in research studies and clinical trials involving cardiovascular health and related diseases, so the ability to capture and synchronize heart rate RR intervals with objective physical activity and sleep/wake data is of tremendous value,” said John Schneider, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at ActiGraph. “Heart rate variability measurements add an exciting new dimension to traditional actigraphy data, and we’ve integrated this capability into our existing solution with minimal added cost or burden to the research team and study subjects.”

About ActiGraph:
ActiGraph’s extensively validated suite of hardware and software products are widely used by prominent scientific and academic organizations in more than 65 countries in research studies and clinical trials involving physical activity, energy expenditure, and sleep/wake behavior and their relationships to a wide range of health conditions including obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders. ActiGraph monitoring solutions have delivered objective activity and sleep data to many high profile population studies including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), the European Youth Health Study, the U.K. Millennium Cohort Study and the Women’s Health Initiative.