title: Relationship between ischemic stroke location and autonomic cardiac function.
abstract: Autonomic cardiac dysfunction is a common complication after acute ischemic stroke (IS). We recruited 75 patients with acute IS with measurements of autonomic cardiac function, including heart rate variability (HRV) and associated parameters, and compared them with 81 controls. Of the 75 patients, 28 had right hemispheric infarctions (RH), 29 had left hemispheric infarctions (LH), and 18 had brainstem infarctions (BS). A comparison of HRV in all patients with stroke and in control subjects showed significant differences between IS subgroups and controls in low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF), normalized LF, normalized HF, and LF/HF ranges. A post-hoc comparison identified significant differences between patients with IS with BS infarctions and the control group in LF, HF, and LF/HF ranges. BS infarction may cause a much greater increase in sympathetic modulation and reduced vagal activity compared to RH or LH infarction. Our findings provide evidence that acute IS causes significant damage to the cardiovascular autonomic system, manifesting as abnormalities of HRV. BS stroke might correlate with a significant reduction in parasympathetic and an increase in sympathetic influence on HRV.
authors.affiliation: Department of Master's Program in Neurology, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, 100 Tzyou 1st Road, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Chien-Fu
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hsiu-Fen
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Ruey-Tay
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yi-Hsin
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chiou-Lian
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lai
mesh_terms: D001342:Autonomic Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*