Evaluation of emotional excitation during standardized endotracheal intubation in simulated conditions

Annals of Intensive Care

Table 2 Physiological measurement of emotional excitation during scenarios

	Overall			Senior			Junior
	Neutral	Stress	p	Neutral	Stress	p	Neutral	Stress	p
Heart rate variation (HRV)
HR mean value	114.1 ± 21	120.7 ± 19.9	0.002	111.1 ± 21.6	117.2 ± 21.5	0.007	119.8 ± 19.8	127 ± 15.8	0.235
HR maximal value	127.1 ± 20.5	140.1 ± 20.6	0.003	123.1 ± 21.1	137.8 ± 23.8	0.005	134.6 ± 18.3	144.3 ± 13.6	0.362
SDNN (ms)	41.7 ± 21.3	35.1 ± 14.8	0.035	41.9 ± 22.2	38.1 ± 15.5	0.307	41.3 ± 21	29.7 ± 12.4	0.017
AVNN (ms)	547.9 ± 110.1	514 ± 94.2	< 0.0001	563.8 ± 116.8	532.4 ± 103.9	0.003	517.9 ± 96.2	481.1 ± 67	0.069
LF/HF ratio	3.5 ± 0.3	3.5 ± 0.2	0.1	3.5 ± 0.3	3.5 ± 0.2	0.256	3.5 ± 0.3	3.6 ± 0.1	0.208
SCL electrodermal activity (ms)	1.8 ± 3.1	1.9 ± 3.1	0.259	2.3 ± 3.8	2.6 ± 3.7	0.721	0.9 ± 0.7	0.7 ± 0.7	0.108
Eye-tracking
Blink (n)	1537 ± 2173	4109 ± 3750	0.03	1722 ± 2544	5081 ± 4086	0.013	1085 ± 1149	2407 ± 1191	0.025
Fixation (n)	2451 ± 1752	3806 ± 2249	0.03	2023 ± 1423	4002 ± 2381	0.011	3339 ± 1980	3537 ± 1951	0.779

Values are provided as mean ± STD or number and percentage
A p value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant (in italics)
According to our results, the intubation stress sequence was associated with different HRV parameters, an increase in eye-blinking and fixation episodes in stress condition, as compared to the neutral condition
HR heart rate, HRV heart rate variability, SDNN standard deviation of all NN intervals, AVNN average of all NN intervals, LF/HF ratio ratio of low (LF) to high (HF) frequency power, SCL skin conductance level, Blink the overall number of eye links during the measurement periods, Fixation the overall number of eye fixations during the measurement periods