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Cited by 601Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic ControlBlood Pressure and Hypertension StudiesCardiovascular and exercise physiology

Human muscle nerve sympathetic activity at rest. Relationship to blood pressure and age

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Sundlöf, G., Wallin, B. G.·1978·The Journal of Physiology
DOI 10.1113/jphysiol.1978.sp012170PMC PMC1282513
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Abstract

1. Recordings of multi‐unit sympathetic activity were made from median or peroneal muscle nerve fascicles in thirty‐three healthy subjects, resting in recumbent position. Simultaneous recordings of intra‐arterial blood pressure were made in seventeen subjects. The neural activity, quantified by counting the number of pulse synchronous sympathetic bursts in the mean voltage neurogram (burst incidence), was plotted against the arterial blood pressure level and the age of the subjects. The effects of spontaneous temporary blood pressure fluctuations were studied by correlating different pressure parameters of individual heart beats to the probability of occurrence of a sympathetic burst and to the amplitude of the occurring burst. 2. Between different subjects there were marked differences in burst incidence, from less than 10 to more than 90 bursts/100 heart beats. No correlation was found to interindividual differences in the arterial blood pressure level but there was a slight tendency for increasing burst incidence with increasing age. 3. Irrespective of the magnitude of the burst incidence, the bursts always occurred more frequently during spontaneous transient blood pressure reductions than during transient increases in blood pressure. When, for each heart cycle, the occurrence of a sympathetic burst was correlated with different blood pressure parameters there was regularly a close negative correlation to diastolic pressure, a low correlation to systolic and an intermediary negative correlation to mean blood pressure. There was a positive correlation to pulse pressure and to pulse interval. 4. When measured for individual heart beats, not only the occurrence but also the mean voltage amplitude of the sympathetic bursts tended to increase with decreasing diastolic pressure. 5. In a given subject when comparing heart beats with the same diastolic pressure, the occurrence as well as the amplitude of the sympathetic bursts was higher for heart beats occurring during falling than for heart beats occurring during rising blood pressure. For a given change in diastolic blood pressure, sympathetic activity changed more if pressure was falling than if it was rising. 6. The findings suggest that the sympathetic outflow is modulated by arterial baroreflex mechanisms and that transient variations in the strength of the activity are, to a large extent, determined by diastolic blood pressure fluctuations. The intimate correlation with ‘dynamic’ variations in blood pressure and the absence of correlation to the ‘static’ blood pressure level suggests that the sympathetic outflow to skeletal muscles is of importance for buffering acute blood pressure changes but has little influence on the long term blood pressure level. The difference in reflex sensitivity between falling and rising pressure indicates that acute blood pressure decreases may be buffered more efficiently than acute blood pressure increases. 7. In twenty‐seven subjects baroreflex latency was calculated from the QRS‐complexes in the e.c.g. to the appropriate systolic inhibition in the sympathetic activity. When recording in the peroneal nerve, the latency ranged between 1·16 and 1·49 sec and there was a positive correlation with the height of the subjects. It is suggested that such latency measurements may be used clinically to evaluate conduction in sympathetic fibres.

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Crossref · 10.1113/jphysiol.1978.sp012170

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  • Aging increases sympathetic activity, evident in higher multiunit sympathetic nerve firing measured by microneurography and in higher cardiac norepinephrine spillover, both at rest and during mental stress.

    “Aging does increase sympathetic activity, evident in higher multiunit sympathetic nerve firing measured by microneurography 77 and in higher cardiac norepinephrine spillover, both at rest and during mental stress.90”

    From Obesity Paradox in Hypertension: Is This Because Sympathetic Activation in Obesity-Hypertension Takes a Benign Form? (2018) · cites this paper as [77]

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Authors
Sundlöf, G., & Wallin, B. G.
Affiliations
Uppsala University (SE)
Venue
The Journal of Physiology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1978-01
Volume
274
Issue
1
Pages
621-637
ISSN
  • 0022-3751 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-7793
DOI
10.1113/jphysiol.1978.sp012170
PMC
PMC1282513
OpenAlex
W2129125192
Cited by
601
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 26 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 29
FWCI
6.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • The Journal of Physiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Blood Pressure and Hypertension Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Cardiovascular and exercise physiology
Keywords
muscle sympathetic nerve activity, baroreflex, blood pressure regulation, diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, age effects, blood pressure fluctuation, median nerve, peroneal nerve, autonomic nervous system, sympathetic nervous system
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Age Factors, Blood Pressure, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Muscles, Neural Conduction, Pressoreceptors, Reflex, Rest, Sympathetic Nervous System

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