title: Heart "timing" versus artery "timing". Neurovegetative effects in compensated and decompensated cardiocirculatory failure.
abstract: The hypothesis that the main local goal of the neurovegetative cardiovascular regulation is to set and maintain the cardiac cycle and the time constant of the arterial system within a given reciprocal proportion is discussed in this paper. Drastic changes in this reciprocal proportion can induce cardiocirculatory failure. Three different models of cardiocirculatory failure (congestive, hypovolemic and anaphylactic) have been considered in order to test the hypothesis. It is possible to outline a theory that is, decompensated failure occurs at very high levels of sympathoadrenal activation, when the arterial time constant increases when compared to the cardiac cycle, owing to mechanical properties of the arterial wall.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Anaesthesiology and Reanimation, University of Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dambrosio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Federici
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006321:Heart / Q000294:innervation*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000294:innervation; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology