We compared hemodynamic parameters between subjects with marked, intermediate and minimal cardioinhibition during vasovagal syncope. The study included subjects with a decrease in heart rate while experiencing a complete vasovagal syncope during tilt-table testing. The subjects were classified as having marked, intermediate or minimal cardioinhibition, based on tertile values of...
To understand the influence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on clinical autonomic education and research in Europe. We invited 84 European autonomic centers to complete an online survey, recorded the pre-pandemic-to-pandemic percentage of junior participants in the annual congresses of the European Federation of Autonomic Societies (EFAS) and European Academy...
To quantify sweat gland nerve fiber density in adolescents with diabetes. Additionally, to investigate associations between sudomotor innervation, sweat responses, and possible risk factors for sudomotor neuropathy. Cross-sectional study where 60 adolescents with type 1 diabetes (duration > 5 years) and 23 control subjects were included. Clinical data, quantitative sudomotor axon...
Exercise like any medication requires the correct dose; to be effective the appropriate frequency, duration, and intensity are necessary. This study aimed to assess if a semi-supervised exercise training (ET) program would be more effective at improving aerobic fitness (VO2PEAK), exercise tolerance, and symptoms in individuals with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS...
Habitual coffee drinking is ubiquitous and generally considered to be safe despite its transient hypertensive effect. Our purpose was to determine the role of the sympathetic nervous system in the hypertensive response. In a single-centre crossover study, medical caregivers were studied after consumption of standard coffee (espresso), water and decaffeinated coffee (decaff) given...
Sleep duration is associated with risk of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. It is thought that shorter sleep increases sympathetic activity. However, most studies are based on acute experimental sleep deprivation that have produced conflicting results. Furthermore, there are limited data available on habitual sleep duration and gold-standard measures of sympathetic...
Increasing evidence demonstrates that gender-related factors, and not only biological sex, are relevant in the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms of the cardiovascular system, including the cardiac autonomic regulation. Sex and gender may also affect daytime and night-time cardiac autonomic control. This meta-analysis aimed to provide a comparison between healthy...
Orthostatic hypotension is a common condition with heterogeneous and, in many cases, unclear underlying pathophysiology. Frequent symptoms are syncope and falls with a strong impact on daily life. A two-generation family with eight individuals segregating early-onset severe orthostatic hypotension with persistent tachycardia in upright position and repeated faints was identified...
To explore the prevalence of undetected bradyarrhythmia in a cohort of people with dementia with Lewy bodies. Thirty participants diagnosed with dementia with Lewy bodies were enrolled from three memory clinics in southern Sweden between May 2021 and November 2022. None had a history of high-grade atrioventricular block or sick sinus syndrome. Each participant underwent...
Orthostatic intolerance commonly occurs following immobilization or space flight. We hypothesized that daily artificial gravity training through short-arm centrifugation could help to maintain orthostatic tolerance following head-down tilt bedrest, which is an established terrestrial model for weightlessness. We studied 24 healthy persons (eight women; age 33.3 ± 9.0 years; BMI...
The deep breathing test (DBT) is a sensitive test of cardiovagal function. The aim of this study was to explore associations between physical activity and sedentary time, measured by accelerometer, and autonomic function, using DBT. In the Swedish Cardio-Pulmonary bioImage Study, men and women aged 50–64 were randomly invited from the general population. A total of 4325 subjects...
The effect of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) on health-related quality of life (HrQoL) remains poorly studied. Here, we sought to compare the HrQoL in individuals with POTS to a normative age-/sex-matched population. Participants enrolled in the Australian POTS registry between 5 August 2021 and 30 June 2022 were compared with propensity-matched local normative...
We report the case of an elderly woman who developed recurring episodes of unexplained cardiocirculatory arrest. The index event appeared during surgery to fix a fracture of the ankle and consisted of bradypnea, hypotension and asystole, coherent with a Bezold–Jarisch-like cardioprotective reflex. Classical signs of acute myocardial infarction were absent. Yet, occlusion of the...
Approximately 96% of patients with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (PoTS) report cognitive complaints. We investigated whether cognitive function is impaired during sitting and active standing in 30 patients with PoTS compared with 30 healthy controls (HCs) and whether it will improve with the counter manoeuvre of leg crossing. In this prospective pilot study, patients...
Cardiac autonomic dysfunction is one of the main pillars of cardiovascular pathophysiology. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the current state of the art on the pathological remodeling that occurs within the autonomic nervous system with cardiac injury and available neuromodulatory therapies for autonomic dysfunction in heart failure. Data from peer...