Respiratory sinus arrhythmia: physiological mechanisms and relationship with systemic blood pressure fluctuations

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Abstract

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reflects the functioning of the nervous heart control, predominantly of a parasympathetic nature. The study of RSA mechanisms helps to reveal the physiological patterns of regulation of cardiac activity, and the development of new approaches to its assessment is an urgent medical task. This review will examine experimental approaches that have contributed to the development of modern ideas about autonomic nervous system role in the formation of RSA, as well as the connection between RSA and frequency-matched fluctuations in systemic blood pressure. In addition, we will consider new data on the phase relationships of fluctuations in heart rate and blood pressure in the frequency range of respiratory waves, obtained using wavelet analysis of these physiological signals.

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About the authors

O. L. Vinogradova

Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: microgravity@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

A. S. Borovik

Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: microgravity@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

R. Yu. Zhedyaev

Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences

Email: microgravity@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow

О. S. Tarasova

Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences; Moscow State University

Email: microgravity@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Moscow; Moscow

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2. Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating the mechanisms of formation of respiratory sinus arrhythmia.

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3. Fig. 2. Dependence of the phase difference of the oscillations of the average blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) per cycle depending on the frequency in a horizontal body position (A) and at 65º orthostasis (B). The figure shows three-dimensional representations of the histograms of the distribution of Δφ – the normalized phase difference of HR and BP: the frequency is plotted along the X axis, the phase difference value is plotted along the Y axis, and the grayscale shows the probability of detecting a given Δφ value at a given frequency (increasing from white to black). The averaged data for a group of 8 healthy young men are shown.

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