The effect of haloperidol administration on heart rate variability in isolated heart of schizophrenia-like and control rats

Deeper understanding of heart rate variability (HRV) changes induced by haloperidol administration can contribute to overcoming of adverse cardiovascular effects of antipsychotics. The effect of haloperidol administration on HRV was therefore studied in nine schizophrenia-like rat isolated hearts and six control rat hearts. Isolated hearts were stabilized (20 min) on Langendorff perfusion system, then exposed to haloperidol (40 min) and finally washed out (40 min). The effect of haloperidol administration was studied in tachograms obtained from touchless-recorded electrograms (5 kHz, 12-bit). HRV parameters evolution in time, frequency, geometric, and non-linear domain were computed from 10 minutes long tachogram segments during stabilization, haloperidol exposition and washout periods. The haloperidol administration significantly affected HRV parameters in control rat hearts, but it had limited effect on schizophrenia-like ones. The effect of haloperidol administration was irreversible, since the washout did not restore HRV parameters to their initial values.