The immunomodulatory effect of the autonomic nervous system has raised considerable interest over the last decades. Studying the influence on the immune system and the role in inflammation of the sympathetic as well as the parasympathetic nervous system not only will increase our understanding of the mechanism of disease, but also could lead to the identification of potential new therapeutic ta...

Abnormal autonomic activity in patients with schizophrenia has been reported, but how psychotic states influence the autonomic nervous system (ANS) has remained unclear due to methodological limitations. The influence of psychotic states on ANS activity in patients with schizophrenia was investigated using a recently developed method of analysis based on heart rate variability which assesses ca...

This study tests the hypothesis that identified parasympathetic cardiac neurons in the nucleus ambiguus possess pacemaker-like activity or, alternatively, that these neurons are inherently silent. To test this hypothesis and to examine the firing properties of these neurons, parasympathetic cardiac neurons were identified by the presence of a fluorescent tracer previously applied to their termi...

BACKGROUND Activation of the sympathetic nervous system has been extensively studied in patients with chronic heart failure, but the parasympathetic nervous system has received relatively little attention. The objective in this study was to investigate cardiac parasympathetic activity in chronic heart failure and to explore its relation to left ventricular function. METHODS Heart rate variabi...

BACKGROUND Cardiovascular autonomic neuropathy (CAN) is recognized as a significant health risk, correlating with risk of heart disease, silent myocardial ischemia or sudden cardiac death. Beta-blockers are often prescribed to minimize risk. OBJECTIVES In this second of two articles, the effects on parasympathetic and sympathetic activity of the alpha/beta-adrenergic blocker, Carvedilol, are ...

We describe a case of systemic sclerosis with sympathetic and parasympathetic neuropathy and detail autonomic testing in six further patients. Of these six patients, three showed early parasympathetic damage. None of the patients had evidence of peripheral neuropathy, and there was no correlation between the presence of autonomic dysfunction and the severity of Raynaud's phenomenon.

The presence of parasympathetic nerve supply to the thymus has been demonstrated by histochemical and immunocytochemical methods using antibodies against cholineacetyl transferase. Fine nerve fibres have been observed both in the thymic parenchyma and around the blood vessels. The role of the parasympathetic nerve supply to the thymus is briefly discussed.

Autonomic function was assessed in subjects with acute intermittent porphyria and age- and sex-matched controls using five different bedside tests of cardiovascular reflexes. During the acute attack both parasympathetic and sympathetic tests were impaired, but subsequently improved during remission. Early parasympathetic dysfunction was also detected during remission and in latent asymptomatic ...

The close apposition between sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve terminals in the adventitia of cerebral arteries provides morphological evidence that sympathetic nerve activation causes parasympathetic nitrergic vasodilation via a sympathetic-parasympathetic interaction mechanism. The decreased parasympathetic nerve terminals in basilar arteries (BA) of spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) a...

UNLABELLED In children, sevoflurane depresses parasympathetic tone during induction more than halothane. The effects of sevoflurane on parasympathetic activity could explain the difference in heart rate (HR) changes described between infants and children. In this study, we sought to determine the relationship between the end-tidal concentration of sevoflurane and sympathetic and parasympathetic...