title: Attenuation of human carotid-cardiac vagal baroreflex responses after physical detraining.
abstract: Astronauts who are occupied with prelaunch schedules may have to limit their regular physical exercise routines. To assess a potential effect on blood pressure control, carotid baroreceptor-cardiac reflex responses of 16 men (30-45 years of age) were evaluated before and after 2 weeks of exercise detraining that followed 10 weeks of regular scheduled exercise (30 min/d, 4 d/week at 75% Vo2max). At mid-expiration, the subjects held their breath and 40 mm Hg of pressure was applied to a neck chamber for four heart beats, followed by 15-mm Hg, R-wave triggered decrements to -65 mm Hg. Changes of R-R intervals were plotted against carotid distending pressure (systolic-neck chamber pressure). After detraining, the baroreflex stimulus-response relationship had a reduced slope [4.0 +/- 0.5 vs. 2.8 +/- 0.4 msec/mmHg (p = 0.0008)] and range of response [191 +/- 19 vs. 145 +/- 17 ms (p = 0.002)]. In addition, there was a resetting of the relationship on the R-R interval axis. Both the minimum and maximum R-R interval responses to the stimulus were significantly reduced after detraining [953 +/- 32 vs. 909 +/- 36 ms (p = 0.035) and 1145 +/- 36 vs. 1054 +/- 39 (p = 0.002)]. Baseline systolic pressure did not change with detraining (116 +/- 2 vs. 114 +/- 2 mm Hg) and the carotid baroreceptor-cardiac response relationship did not shift on the pressure axis. These results suggest that detraining from regular exercise can compromise vagally-mediated mechanisms of blood pressure regulation.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Operations and Research Office, NASA-Kennedy Space Center, FL, 32899.
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Convertino
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fritsch
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007024:Hypotension, Orthostatic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011311:Pressoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology; D013026:Space Flight