Stroke volume variation as an index of fluid responsiveness can be impaired by mental stress.

Cardiac stroke volume variation (SVV) measurement is one of the techniques to detect fluid-responsive hypovolemia in patients under mechanical ventilation. There is an ongoing effort to apply SVV for this purpose also in conscious patients. However, the effect of mental stress often occurring in conscious patients as a potential confounding factor on SVV is not known. The aim of our study was to compare effect of simulated hypovolemia and mental stress on SVV in healthy volunteers in the context of potential confounders - breathing pattern, respiratory sinus arrhythmia magnitude and sex. We examined 102 young healthy volunteers (58 females), mean age 18.6 years. Finger arterial blood pressure was recorded by volume-clamp photoplethysmographic method (Finometer Pro, FMS, Amsterdam, Netherland). From the blood pressure curve, a built in ModelFlow algorithm calculated stroke volume values (SV) for each heartbeat. Respiratory volume was recorded using calibrated respiratory inductive plethysmography (RespiTrace, NIMS, Miami Beach, FL, USA). During four phases of examination protocol (supine rest, head-up tilt (HUT), supine recovery, mental arithmetic task (MA)) we analyzed SVV related to respiratory activity. While during HUT we found an expected increase in SVV together with mean SV decrease, SVV significantly decreased during MA. The observed changes during MA could be attributed to an increased respiratory rate and/or decreased respiratory sinus arrhythmia. Sex related differences in SVV responses to HUT and MA were observed. We conclude that mental stress together with respiratory sinus arrhythmia and respiratory pattern changes can significantly influence SVV as a potential index of fluid responsiveness in conscious patients.

Short-term arterial compliance changes in the context of systolic blood pressure influence.

Arterial compliance (C) is a complex parameter influencing ventricular-arterial coupling depending on structural (arterial wall remodeling) and functional (blood pressure, smooth muscles tone) changes. Based on Windkessel model, C can be calculated as the ratio of a time constant Tau characterizing diastolic blood pressure decay and total peripheral resistance (TPR). The aim of this study was to assess changes of C in the context of systolic arterial pressure (SAP) perturbations during four physiological states (supine rest, head-up tilt, supine recovery, mental arithmetic). In order to compare pressure independent changes of C a new index of C120 was proposed predicting C value at 120 mm Hg of SAP. Eighty-one healthy young subjects (48 f, average age 18.6 years) were examined. Hemodynamic parameters were measured beat-to-beat using volume-clamp photoplethysmographic method and impedance cardiography. We observed that C was strongly related to SAP values on the beat-to-beat time scale. Interestingly, C120 decreased significantly during stress phases. In conclusion, potential changes of SAP should be considered when measuring C. Arterial compliance changes in the opposite direction to TPR pointing towards influence of vascular tone changes on its value.

Vascular resistance arm of the baroreflex: methodology and comparison with the cardiac chronotropic arm.

Baroreflex response consists of cardiac chronotropic (effect on heart rate), cardiac inotropic (on contractility), venous (on venous return) and vascular (on vascular resistance) arms. Because of the simplicity of its measurement, the cardiac chronotropic arm is most often analyzed. The aim was to introduce a method to assess the vascular baroreflex arm and to characterize its changes during stress. We evaluated the effect of orthostasis and mental arithmetics (MA) in 39 (22 women, 17 men; median age: 18.7 yr) and 36 (21 women, 15 men; 19.2 yr) healthy volunteers, respectively. We recorded systolic (SBP) and mean (MBP) blood pressure by volume-clamp method and R-R interval (RR) by ECG. Cardiac output (CO) was recorded by impedance cardiography. From MBP and CO, peripheral vascular resistance (PVR) was calculated. The directional spectral coupling and gain of cardiac chronotropic (SBP to RR) and vascular (SBP to PVR) arms were quantified. The strength of the causal coupling from SBP to PVR was significantly higher than that of SBP to RR coupling over the whole protocol (P < 0.001). Along both arms, the coupling was higher during orthostasis compared with the supine position (P < 0.001 and P = 0.006); no MA effect was observed. No significant changes in the spectral gain (ratio of RR or PVR change to a unit SBP change) across all phases were found (0.111 ≤ P ≤ 0.907). We conclude that changes in PVR are tightly coupled with SBP oscillations via the baroreflex, providing an approach for baroreflex vascular arm analysis with the potential to reveal new aspects of blood pressure dysregulation.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Baroreflex response consists of several arms, but the cardiac chronotropic arm (blood pressure changes evoking heart rate response) is usually analyzed. This study introduces a method to assess the vascular baroreflex arm with the continuous noninvasive measurement of peripheral vascular resistance as an output considering causality in the interaction between oscillations and slower dynamics of vascular tone changes. We conclude that although vascular baroreflex arm involvement becomes dominant during orthostasis, gain of this interaction is relatively stable.

Information domain analysis of respiratory sinus arrhythmia mechanisms.

Ventilation related heart rate oscillations - respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) - originate in human from several mechanisms. Two most important of them - the central mechanism (direct communication between respiratory and cardiomotor centers), and the peripheral mechanism (ventilation-associated blood pressure changes transferred to heart rate via baroreflex) have been described in previous studies. The major aim of this study was to compare the importance of these mechanisms in the generation of RSA non-invasively during various states by quantifying the strength of the directed interactions between heart rate, systolic blood pressure and respiratory volume signals. Seventy-eight healthy volunteers (32 male, age range: 16.02-25.77 years, median age: 18.57 years) participated in this study. The strength of mutual interconnections among the spontaneous beat-to-beat oscillations of systolic blood pressure (SBP), R-R interval (RR signal) and respiration (volume changes - RESP signal) was quantified during supine rest, orthostatic challenge (head-up tilt, HUT) and cognitive load (mental arithmetics, MA) using bivariate and trivariate measures of cardio-respiratory information transfer to separate baroreflex and nonbaroreflex (central) mechanisms. Our results indicate that both basic mechanisms take part in RSA generation in the intact cardiorespiratory control of human subjects. During orthostatic and mental challenges baroreflex based peripheral mechanism becomes more important.