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The Association of Type D personality with Heart Rate Variability and Lipid Profiles Among Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

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Abstract

Purpose

Characteristics of the distressed (Type D) personality include negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI), which are associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiac events and mortality among patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). The aims of this study were to examine: (1) the correlation of NA and SI with psychological characteristics, heart rate variability (HRV) indices, and lipids profiles and (2) the differences in psychological characteristics, HRV indices, and lipid profiles between patients with CAD with Type D personality and those with non-Type D personality.

Method

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 168 patients with CAD. The Taiwanese 14-item Type D Scale, Chinese Hostility Inventory-Short Form, Beck Depression Inventory-II, Beck Anxiety Inventory, and Anger Rumination Scale were administered to all of the participants. The raw signals of electrocardiograms were recorded over a 5-min baseline resting period and then transformed to HRV indices representing short-term cardiac autonomic activations. Lipid profiles were acquired from patients’ medical records.

Results

NA was positively correlated with hostility, depression, anxiety, and anger rumination. With respect to pathophysiological mechanisms for CAD with Type D personality, NA was negatively correlated with standard deviation of all normal-to-normal intervals (SDNN) and total power of HRV and positively correlated with total cholesterol. SI was positively correlated with suppressive hostility behavior and anger rumination; however, SI was not significantly correlated with expressive hostility behavior, or HRV indices and lipid profiles.

Conclusion

Pathophysiological mechanisms leading to higher rates of adverse outcomes in CAD in individuals with Type D personalities may involve cardiac autonomic imbalance and lipid dysregulation.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the student assistants, Te-Lun Hu, Lin-Yuan Tai, Hsueh-Chen Lu, Hsiang-Tzu Huang, Li-Ching Yu, and Pei-Yun Lin, for their helping in data collections. This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan [grant numbers were 100-2410-H-037-002, 102-2410-H-037-003, and 103-2410-H-037-005].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    I-Mei Lin & San-Yu Wang

  2. Department of Sports Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    I-Hua Chu

  3. Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Ye-Hsu Lu, Chee-Siong Lee & Tsung-Hsien Lin

  4. Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

    Tsung-Hsien Lin

  5. Institute of Gerontology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, No.1, University Road, Tainan City, 701, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Sheng-Yu Fan

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  1. I-Mei Lin
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Correspondence to Sheng-Yu Fan.

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Lin, IM., Wang, SY., Chu, IH. et al. The Association of Type D personality with Heart Rate Variability and Lipid Profiles Among Patients with Coronary Artery Disease. Int.J. Behav. Med. 24, 101–109 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-016-9571-x

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