SynthesisCurrent environmental health reports2015
Mercury Exposure and Heart Rate Variability: a Systematic Review.
Synthesis in Current environmental health reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Review on the Vagus Nerve and Autonomic Nervous System During Fetal Development: Searching for Critical Windows.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Pooled it
- Chronic mercury exposure and blood pressure in children and adolescents: a systematic review.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2019Pooled it
- Chemical Toxicants Used for Food Preservation in Africa. Is it a Case of Ignorance or Food Fraud? A Review.Health science reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Guideline for the application of heart rate and heart rate variability in occupational medicine and occupational health science.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2024Review
- Prenatal fluoride exposure, offspring visual acuity and autonomic nervous system function in 6-month-old infants.Environment international · 2024Article
- A Decision Framework for Selecting Critically Important Nutrients from Aquatic Foods.Current environmental health reports · 2023Review
- Blood lead and mercury levels are associated with low resting heart rate in community adolescent boys.International journal of hygiene and environmental health · 2021Article
- Methylmercury Poisoning Induces Cardiac Electrical Remodeling and Increases Arrhythmia Susceptibility and Mortality.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Article
- Environmental Health Research in Africa: Important Progress and Promising Opportunities.Frontiers in genetics · 2019Review
- Review
- Mercury Exposure and Heart Diseases.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2017Review
- Heart Rate Variability, Heart Rate Recovery, and Heart Rate Turbulence Represent Different Components of the Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2017Article
- Prenatal and recent methylmercury exposure and heart rate variability in young adults: the Seychelles Child Development Study.Neurotoxicology and teratologyArticle
- Assessment of the Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System in Mercury-Exposed Individuals via Post-Exercise Heart Rate Recovery.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science CentreArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMercury affects the nervous system and has been implicated in altering heart rhythm and function. We sought to better define its role in modulating heart rate variability, a well-known marker of cardiac autonomic function.
designThis is a systematic review study.
methodsWe searched PubMed, Embase, TOXLINE, and DART databases without language restriction. We report findings as a qualitative systematic review because heterogeneity in study design and assessment of exposures and outcomes across studies, as well as other methodological limitations of the literature, precluded a quantitative meta-analysis.
resultsWe identified 12 studies of mercury exposure and heart rate variability in human populations (ten studies involving primarily environmental methylmercury exposure and two studies involving occupational exposure to inorganic mercury) conducted in Japan, the Faroe Islands, Canada, Korea, French Polynesia, Finland, and Egypt. The association of prenatal mercury exposure with lower high-frequency band scores (thought to reflect parasympathetic activity) in several studies, in particular the inverse association of cord blood mercury levels with the coefficient of variation of the R-R intervals and with low-frequency and high-frequency bands at 14 years of age in the Faroe Islands birth cohort study, suggests that early mercury exposure could have a long-lasting effect on cardiac parasympathetic activity. Studies with later environmental exposures to mercury in children or in adults were heterogeneous and did not show consistent associations.
conclusionsThe evidence was too limited to draw firm causal inferences. Additional research is needed to elucidate the effects of mercury on cardiac autonomic function, particularly as early-life exposures might have lasting impacts on cardiac parasympathetic function.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.