Objective: Heart rate variability (HRV) is a noninvasive method used to assess the status of autonomic function of the heart. The aim of this study was to evaluate HRV in healthy children.

Material and Method: 51 healthy children were included in the study. HRV of all subjects were evaluated using the data in 24 hours Holter monitoring. HRV was measured by calculating five time-domain (SDNN, SDNN-indeks, SDANN, RMSSD, pNN50), and four frequency-domain (LF, HF, VLF, LF/HF ratio) indices.

Results: The mean age of 51 healthy children included in the study was 10.78 ± 3.80 years (range 4-17 years). There was no statistically significant difference in the heart rate parameters detected between females and males. SDNN, SDNN-index, SDANN, LF, VLF, total power parameters of the heart rate variability showed a significant positive correlation with age (r:0.301, p:0.032; r:0.278 p:0.048; r:0.335 p:0.016; r:0.334 p:0.017; r:0.361 p:0.009; r: 0.321 p:0.021; respectively).There was no correlation detected between body mass index and the parameters of HRV.

Conclusion: HRV parameters denoting vagal activity did not show significantly difference between female and male children. The majority of HRV parameters increased with increasing age. HRV which is a noninvasive method could be used to evaluate the risk of the possible cardiac arrhythmia.