BACKGROUND Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is the first-line treatment in severe carotid stenosis to prevent stroke. Because of methodological limitations, the acute impact of CEA on baroreflex function and cerebral autoregulation is not well defined and was therefore investigated by applying a novel algorithm. METHODS AND RESULTS Systemic arterial blood pressure, ECG and respiration during metr...

Pregnancy decreases baroreflex gain, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. Insulin resistance, which has been associated with reduced transport of insulin into the brain, is a consistent feature of many conditions exhibiting impaired baroreflex gain, including pregnancy. Therefore, using conscious pregnant and nonpregnant rabbits, we tested the novel hypothesis that the pregnancy-induced imp...

AIM To study baroreflex maturation by measuring, longitudinally, baroreflex sensitivity in preterm (gestational age 24-37 weeks) and full term infants. METHODS Baroreflex sensitivity was quantified once a week, one to seven times, by a totally non-invasive method. RESULTS Baroreflex sensitivity at birth was lower in the preterm infant and increased with gestational age. It also increased wi...

Baroreflex function was studied in conscious early phase (<6 weeks) two-kidney, one-clip hypertensive rats before and 24 hours after surgical reversal of hypertension by removal of the constricting renal artery clip or after pharmacological reduction of blood pressure by an infusion of hydralazine or captopril. A normotensive sham-clipped group was included. Another group of two-kidney, one-cli...

Weight loss improves insulin sensitivity and exerts sympathomodulatory effects. No data, however, are available on the effects of the weight loss induced by vertical sleeve gastrectomy on sympathetic neural drive, insulin sensitivity, and their reciprocal cross talks. In 10 severe obese hypertensives (age, 54.0±2.3 years [mean±SEM]), we measured sphygmomanometric blood pressure, heart rate, bod...

Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may develop hypercapnia and hypoxia, two main determinants of cerebral blood flow. The current authors tested whether cerebrovascular regulation was altered in mild COPD, modified by manoeuvres acutely improving autonomic cardiovascular modulation or influenced by smoking habit. In 15 eucapnic normoxic mild COPD patients (eight smokers)...

BACKGROUND Sleep has significant effects on cardiovascular neural regulation. The aim of this study is to explore the possible change in sympathetic vasomotor activity and baroreflex sensitivity associated with spontaneous hypertension during each stage of the sleep-wake cycle. METHODS AND RESULTS Polysomnographic analysis was performed in freely moving spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) a...

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) results in chronic right heart failure, which is associated with an increase in sympathetic tone. This may adversely affect cardiac autonomic control. We investigated the changes in cardiac autonomic nervous activity in relation to disease severity in patients with PAH. In 48 patients with PAH (median World Health Organization class III, pulmonary artery pr...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the cardiac and sympathetic baroreflex sensitivities within healthy, young humans. The sensitivities of the cardiac and sympathetic baroreflexes were compared in 53 normotensive individuals (28 men and 25 women; age: 24.0 0.9 years; body mass index: 24.0 0.3 cm/kg, mean SEM). Heart rate, arterial blood pressure, and peroneal mus...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the cardiac and sympathetic baroreflex sensitivities within healthy, young humans. The sensitivities of the cardiac and sympathetic baroreflexes were compared in 53 normotensive individuals (28 men and 25 women; age: 24.0 ± 0.9 years; body mass index: 24.0 ± 0.3 cm/kg², mean ± SEM). Heart rate, arterial blood pressure, and peron...