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Biomedical subjects

H K Naver

Publications and source records attributed to H K Naver.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1996

Reduced heart rate variability after right-sided stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Recently, asymmetries have been demonstrated in skin sudomotor and vasomotor function after unilateral cerebral lesions. The present study was performed to determine whether other bedside tests reflecting sympathetic and parasympathetic cardiovascular functions would reveal differences with respect to the side of cerebrovascular lesions. METHODS: Heart rate variability during deep breathing as well as blood pressure and heart rate changes during tilt and isometric handgrip was measured in a group of patients with a monofocal stroke and compared with similar data from age-matched patients with transient ischemic attack and healthy control subjects. RESULTS: Compared with left-sided stroke and with the control subjects, stroke location on the right side was associated with a reduced respiratory heart rate variability (P > .01), a reflex mainly under parasympathetic control. In contrast, reflexes mainly reflecting peripheral sympathetic function were equal for right- and left-sided lesions. CONCLUSIONS: Since an imbalance in cardiac autonomic innervation may be crucial for the generation of cardiac arrhythmias and since reduced heart rate variability has been associated with increased mortality, the findings suggest that the risk of sudden death may be correlated with lateralization and location of the brain infarct after stroke.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1993

The cutaneous vascular axon reflex in humans characterized by laser Doppler perfusion imaging.

1. Laser Doppler perfusion imaging was used to map the cutaneous vascular axon response induced by trains of electrical skin stimuli (1 ms, 2 Hz) on the dorsum of the hand, finger and foot in twenty-four healthy subjects. Conduction anaesthesia was applied to nerves supplying the stimulated skin areas. Subtraction of images recorded before and after stimulation was used for data analysis of the intensity and area of the response. 2. The stimulation evoked a localized perfusion increase around the stimulating electrode which lasted approximately 30 min and increased in intensity and area with increasing stimulation strength to a maximum at 20 pulses and 20 mA. The intensity and area of the response was greater on the hand than on the foot. 3. Approximating the response area as a circle, the maximal perfusion increase in the hand extended 9 +/- 3 mm (mean +/- S.D.) outside the perimeter of the stimulating electrode. When stimulating within skin which had been subjected to surface anaesthesia, no response occurred, but when stimulating at the border of surface-anaesthetized skin, the perfusion increase extended 2 +/- 1 mm (mean +/- S.D.) into anaesthetized skin. 4. The results show that the perfusion increase must have been due in part to impulse conduction to, and release of transmitters from, axon endings terminating in skin outside the contact area of the probe. It is concluded that the area of perfusion increase corresponds to the size of the receptive fields of afferent polymodal C fibres.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Sympathetic activity influences the vascular axon reflex in the skin.

The interaction between changes of skin blood flow evoked by centrally mediated reflexes and local axon reflexes was studied in healthy subjects. Axon reflexes were evoked on the dorsum of the hand by transcutaneous electrical stimulation and reflex changes of blood flow by changes of ambient temperature, deep breath and emotional changes of blood flow by changes of ambient temperature, deep breath and emotional stress. Skin blood flow was measured by two laser-Doppler flowmeters, the probes of which were situated 6-8 mm from the stimulating electrode (monitoring net flow responses) and several centimetres away (monitoring generalized reflex responses only). The axon reflex responses were markedly diminished by body cooling but did not change during body warming. In warm subjects, a deep breath and emotional stress caused transient reductions of the flow response evoked by the electrical stimulation. Regional anaesthesia of the nerve(s) innervating the stimulated skin area led to marked increases of axon reflex responses in cold subjects, but no changes occurred in warm subjects. The anaesthesia also eliminated the transient flow reductions evoked by deep breaths and emotional stress. Since the applied stimuli are known to change skin sympathetic activity, it is concluded that sympathetic (presumably vasoconstrictor) impulses destined for the skin may reduce axon reflex responses.

Adult↗