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Ageing and Cardiac Autonomic Status

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Clinical Guide to Cardiac Autonomic Tests

Abstract

Recent studies have shown the significance of autonomic changes for the diagnosis and prognosis of many cardiovascular diseases. A consensus exists that, in the setting of acute myocardial ischaemia, sympathetic hyperactivity facilitates the onset of malignant arrhythmias, whereas vagal activation can exert an antifibrillatory effect. Thus, evaluation of the activity of the autonomic nervous system can contribute to more refined post-myocardial infarction risk stratification. Decreased heart rate variability (HRV) which is a marker of lower parasympathetic and/or higher sympathetic activity and depressed baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) indicate an increased risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in these patients.1–3 BRS is also decreased in patients with essential hypertension and therapeutic normalisation of blood pressure is not accompanied by BRS increase.4,5 On the other hand, both BRS and HRV physiologically decline with age6 which complicates the evaluation of cardiac autonomic status in the elderly.

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Authors
  1. Bořivoj Semrád
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  2. Bohumil Fišer
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  3. Nataša Honzíková
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiological Sciences, St. George’s Hospital Medical School, London, UK

    Marek Malik

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Semrád, B., Fišer, B., Honzíková, N. (1998). Ageing and Cardiac Autonomic Status. In: Malik, M. (eds) Clinical Guide to Cardiac Autonomic Tests. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1057-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1057-2_11

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-5071-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-1057-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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