Electrostimulatory forms of therapy can reduce angina that arises from activation of cardiac nociceptive afferent fibers during transient ischemia. This study sought to determine the effects of electrical stimulation of left thoracic vagal afferents (C(8)-T(1) level) on the release of putative nociceptive [substance P (SP)] and analgesic [dynorphin (Dyn)] peptides in the dorsal horn at the T(4)...

• It was reported recently that cardiac arrhythmia induced in cyclopropane anesthetized dogs by infusion of epinephrine could be converted to normal sinus rhythm by vagal stimulation. The termination of multifocal ventricular tachycardia is interesting because it is not readily apparent how vagal influence, presumably limited to the A-V node or upper bundle of His, alters arrhythmia predominant...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to test whether radiofrequency catheter ablation (RFCA) of 3 epicardial fat pads that resulted in efferent vagal denervation of the atria and sinus and atrioventricular nodes also denervated the ventricles. METHODS AND RESULTS Vagal innervation of the ventricles was determined by measuring prolongation of ventricular effective refractory period induced...

The effect of captopril on neurally evoked bradycardia and tachycardia was investigated in pithed rats. Captopril enhanced the vagal nerve stimulation-evoked bradycardia. Angiotensin I reduced the vagal bradycardia, which was reversed by subsequent administration of captopril. Bradykinin did not affect the neurally evoked bradycardia. Captopril and angiotensin I affected neither the exogenous a...

Recent studies suggest that the capsaicin receptor [transient receptor potential vanilloid (TRPV)1] may play a role in visceral mechanosensation. To address the potential role of TRPV1 in vagal sensory neurons, we developed a new in vitro technique allowing us to determine TRPV1 expression directly in physiologically characterized gastric sensory neurons. Stomach, esophagus, and intact vagus ne...

Immunohistochemical detection of c-Fos expression was used to identify gastric myenteric plexus neurons that receive excitatory input from vagal efferent neurons activated by electrical stimulation of the cervical vagi in anesthetized rats. Vagal stimulation-induced Fos expression increased with higher pulse frequency, so that with 16 Hz (rectangular pulses of 1 mA/0.5 ms for 30 min) approximat...

We earlier reported that stimulation of either one of the sympathetic and vagal nerves augments the dynamic heart rate (HR) response to concurrent stimulation of its counterpart. We explained this phenomenon by assuming a sigmoidal static relationship between nerve activity and HR. To confirm this assumption, we stimulated the sympathetic and/or vagal nerve in anesthetized rabbits using large-a...

BACKGROUND It has recently been shown that electrical stimulation of sensory afferents within the outer auditory canal may facilitate a transcutaneous form of central nervous system stimulation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) effects in limbic and temporal structures have been detected in two independent studies. In the present study, we in...

Our goal was to better understand the mechanisms underlying muscarinic receptor actions on the ventricle in vivo. Therefore, we studied the effects of vagal stimulation on ventricular repolarization and of vagal tone on lethal arrhythmias induced by 30 minutes of left anterior descending coronary artery ligation in anesthetized cats. Experimental groups included normal control cats subjected on...

To determine the factors affecting reproducibility of sinus node recovery time, the effects of basic pacing rate, pacing duration, milliamperage, vagal and beta-adrenergic stimulation, and sinud node injury, as well as its instantaneous and daily reproducibility, were studied in 36 anesthetized dogs. Corrected sinus node recovery time (CSNRT) showed a mean variation of 9.8 plus or minus 0.4 mse...