doi: 10.3389/fphys.2013.00257 Autonomic regulation in muscular dystrophy

tion has been assessed in several muscular dystrophies. In the last two decades it has been recognized a significant relation-ship between ANS and cardiac mortal-ity (Palladino et al., 2008). Cardiovascular ANS is frequently studied by using car-diovascular autonomic reflex tests and spectral analysis of heart rate in time and frequency domain (Ewing and Clarke, 1982; van Ravenswaaij-Arts et al., 1993). Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis, which involves measurement and analysis of heart rate variation, provides a quantita-tive marker of autonomic activity and has proved to be able to detect and measur