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Autonomic regulation of the heart rate in humans under conditions of acute experimental hypoxia

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Abstract

Autonomic regulation of the heart rate (HR) was studied in young healthy volunteers under conditions of experimental acute normobaric hypoxia. Spectral analysis of the HR variability (HRV) was performed with differential sphygmography. The total spectral power (TP) of the HRV and its low and high frequency components (LF and HF, respectively) were assessed, and the sympathovagal balance (LFn/HFn) was calculated. Acute hypoxia increased the sympathetic and decreased the parasympathetic effects on the heart and was accompanied in the majority of subjects by a significant increase in HR and a decrease in HRV. The change in the autonomic regulation of the cardiac rhythm was assumed to be a mechanism of heart activity adaptation to acute hypoxia.

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  1. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 194223, St. Petersburg, Russia

    S. V. Nesterov

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Translated from Fiziologiya Cheloveka, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2005, pp. 82–87.

Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Nesterov.

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Nesterov, S.V. Autonomic regulation of the heart rate in humans under conditions of acute experimental hypoxia. Hum Physiol 31, 70–74 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10747-005-0010-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10747-005-0010-7

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