Derangements within autonomic nervous system take part in the natural history of cardiovascular disease. Current paper presents three categories of methods measuring autonomic status: direct methods (e.g. laboratory tests measuring circulating catecholamine levels or based on isotopes, microneurography), indirect methods applied at rest (e.g. analysis of heart rate variability, spectral and seq...

Intra-arterial pressure, baroreflex sensitivity and the baroreflex set point were measured in eight patients with essential hypertension during a control period and then after acute treatment (2 h after a 30 mg oral dose) and after chronic treatment (at least 2 months) with nicardipine hydrochloride, a calcium channel antagonist. Mean intra-arterial blood pressure fell after the acute treatment...

The purpose of this study was to relate baroreflex sensitivity to age and arterial pressure in 61 male and 20 female untreated subjects, aged 19—66 years, whose mean arterial pressures ranged from 70 to 150 mm Hg. In this selected group of subjects there was no correlation between age and arterial pressure. The index of sensitivity used was the increase in pulse interval which occurs reflexly i...

The protection from coronary events that young women have is sharply reduced at menopause. Oxidative stress and baroreflex sensitivity impairment of the circulation have been demonstrated to increase cardiovascular risk. On the other hand, exercise training has been indicated as a nonpharmacological treatment for many diseases. The aim of the present study was to test the hypothesis that exerci...

This study was designed to determine baroreflex control of heart rate (HR) to hypotensive and hypertensive stimuli during the early follicular (EF), preovulation (PreOV), and midluteal (ML) phases of the menstrual cycle and to test the hypothesis that cardiovagal reflex responses to hypertensive stimuli would be altered depending on the plasma estradiol levels in healthy women. In addition, the...

In heart failure (HF), there is a reduced baroreflex sensitivity at rest, and during dynamic exercise there is enhanced muscle metaboreflex activation (MRA). However, how the arterial baroreflex modulates HR during exercise is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that spontaneous baroreflex sensitivity (SBRS) is attenuated during exercise in HF and that MRA further depresses SBRS. In seven conscio...