CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 614Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic ControlBlood Pressure and Hypertension StudiesCardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders

Sympathetic Activation in Obese Normotensive Subjects

Grassi, Guido, Seravalle, Gino, Cattaneo, Bianca M., Bolla, Giovanni B., Lanfranchi, Antonio, Colombo, Manuela, Giannattasio, Cristina, Brunani, Amelia +2 more·1995·Hypertension
DOI 10.1161/01.hyp.25.4.560
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Abstract Human obesity is characterized by profound alterations in the hemodynamic and metabolic states. Whether these alterations involve sympathetic drive is controversial. In 10 young obese subjects (body mass index, 40.5±1.2 kg/m 2 , mean±SEM) with normal blood pressure and 8 age-matched lean normotensive control subjects, we measured beat-to-beat arterial blood pressure (Finapres technique), heart rate (electrocardiogram), postganglionic muscle sympathetic nerve activity (microneurography at the peroneal nerve), and venous plasma norepinephrine (high-performance liquid chromatography). The measurements were performed in baseline conditions and, with the exception of plasma norepinephrine, during baroreceptor stimulation and deactivation caused by increases and reductions of blood pressure via intravenous infusions of phenylephrine and nitroprusside. Baseline blood pressure and heart rate were similar in obese and control subjects. Plasma norepinephrine was also similar in the two groups. Muscle sympathetic nerve activity, however, was 38.6±5.1 bursts per minute in obese subjects and less than half that level in control subjects (18.7±1.3 bursts per minute), the difference being highly statistically significant ( P <.02). Muscle sympathetic nerve activity and heart rate were reduced during phenylephrine infusion and increased during nitroprusside infusion, but the changes were about half as great in obese subjects as in control subjects. Thus, even in the absence of any blood pressure alteration, human obesity is characterized by a marked sympathetic activation, possibly because of an impairment of reflex sympathetic restraint. This may be involved in the high rate of hypertension and cardiovascular complications seen in obesity.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1161/01.hyp.25.4.560

Cites

31 of 31 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Elevated sympathetic activity in obesity often occurs in the absence of hypertension.

    “Most notably, elevated sympathetic activity in obesity often occurs in the absence of hypertension3,59,60–61.”

    From The Sympathetic Nervous System Alterations in Human Hypertension (2015) · cites this paper as [3]

  • Sophisticated studies using microneurography and/or radiolabeled norepinephrine spillover have unequivocally supported Landsberg's concept of sympathetic overactivity in most human obesity.

    “Sophisticated studies using microneurography and/or radiolabeled norepinephrine spillover have unequivocally supported Landsberg’s concept of sympathetic overactivity in most human obesity3,60–61,64.”

    From The Sympathetic Nervous System Alterations in Human Hypertension (2015) · cites this paper as [3]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Grassi, G., Seravalle, G., Cattaneo, B. M., Bolla, G. B., Lanfranchi, A., Colombo, M., Giannattasio, C., Brunani, A., Cavagnini, F., & Mancia, G.
Affiliations
University of Milan (IT)
ORCID
Venue
Hypertension
Publisher
Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Published
1995-04
Volume
25
Issue
4
Pages
560-563
ISSN
  • 0194-911X (ISSN-L)
  • 1524-4563
DOI
10.1161/01.hyp.25.4.560
OpenAlex
W2114519559
Cited by
614
References
31
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 31 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 28
FWCI
9.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Hypertension (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • BOA (University of Milano-Bicocca) (submittedVersion)
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 › Surgery › Cardiovascular Syncope and Autonomic Disorders
Keywords
obesity, sympathetic nervous system, muscle sympathetic nerve activity, norepinephrine, baroreflex, phenylephrine, sodium nitroprusside, heart rate, blood pressure
MeSH terms
Adult, Blood Pressure, Heart Rate, Humans, Male, Nitroprusside, Norepinephrine, Obesity, Phenylephrine, Pressoreceptors, Respiration, Sympathetic Nervous System

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review