PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

B A Kingwell

Publications and source records attributed to B A Kingwell.

3 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Exercise training reduces the sympathetic component of the blood pressure-heart rate baroreflex in man.

1. Exercise training reduces resting sympathetic activity, but the effects on sympathetic activation or withdrawal during baroreflex responses to blood pressure perturbations are controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of training on both the vagal and sympathetic reflex heart rate responses to blood pressure changes. 2. Using 10 healthy males in a randomized cross-over design, we examined the effects of three 30 min cycling sessions at 70% of maximal capacity for 4 weeks on the steady-state reflex heart rate responses to perturbations in mean arterial pressure induced with injections of nitroprusside and phenylephrine. The method provides a sigmoidal relationship between changes in heart rate and blood pressure. The upper plateau (maximum tachycardia in response to blood pressure reduction) and lower plateau (maximum bradycardia in response to blood pressure elevation) are mainly mediated by the cardiac sympathetics and vagus, respectively. The slope of the relationship is a measure of reflex gain. 3. Training, which increased maximal oxygen consumption by 13 +/- 2% (mean +/- standard error of the difference), reduced supine and standing blood pressures by 3 +/- 1/3 +/- 1 mmHg (P less than 0.05) and 4 +/- 1/2 +/- 2 mmHg (P less than 0.05 for systolic), respectively, whereas resting heart rate was lowered by 6 +/- 1 beats/min (P less than 0.05). Reflex sensitivity in the presence of functioning vagus and sympathetics was not altered with training, but the vagal component of sensitivity, as assessed after sympathetic blockade with propranolol, was significantly reduced.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Assessment of gain of tachycardia and bradycardia responses of cardiac baroreflex.

The cardiac baroreflex was studied in humans by means of vasoactive drugs and in conscious rabbits by the drug and perivascular cuff methods, which provide somewhat different afferent drive. Mean arterial pressure (MAP)-heart rate (HR) curves were derived using 1) a single symmetric logistic function and 2) a compound function, where the two halves of separate logistic functions were centered on the resting value, one for the tachycardia response and the other for the bradycardia response. There were some differences in overall reflex parameters (plateaus, HR range, gain) between the two methods because of minor degrees of asymmetry. But the differences were small, and the single symmetric logistic adequately describes the overall properties. With the compound function, we assessed average gain, Gt and Gb, for the tachycardia and bradycardia responses and the corresponding normalized (range-independent) gains, Ct and Cb. The resting HR has a large effect on Gt/Gb, since it determines the HR range of each logistic. Moreover, Gt/Gb depends on both resting autonomic tone and reflex changes. However, Ct and Cb provide information about "intrinsic" differences in sensitivity; they are independent of resting HR but entirely dependent on reflex autonomic changes. In rabbits Ct and Cb tended to be larger with the cuff than with the drug method; in addition, with the former Ct less than Cb, whereas with the drug method Ct greater than or equal to Cb, which was consistent with differences in afferent drive. There were also differences between humans and rabbits in Ct/Cb of the vagal component of the reflex. The assessment of the normalized gains of the compound logistic function has substantial advantages over previous methods for assessing gain of the tachycardia and bradycardia responses.

Adult↗