Does the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex indicate the capacity of the arterial baroreceptors to control blood pressure?
1. We have examined the question asked in the title by studying: the carotid baroreceptor reflex in man with a variable-pressure neck chamber; the carotid baroreceptor reflex in conscious rabbits with a variable-pressure capsule around the carotid bifurcation; and the barorecptor-heart rate reflex. 2. At rest, the association between the sensitivities of the carotid baroreceptor-blood pressure and -heart rate reflexes, and of these with the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex, is weak. Exercise causes dissociation between control of blood pressure and heart rate. In hypertension, depression of the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex does not reflect the altered characterisitics of the carotid sinus-blood pressure reflex.
D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000294:innervation; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002346:Carotid Sinus / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D011311:Pressoreceptors / Q000502:physiology*; D011817:Rabbits; D012018:Reflex