Effects of Autonomic Tone on Tachycardias

Abstract

The pioneering work of Bernard [70B], Gaskell [40G], Langley [12L], Cannon [12C], Herring [76H], and Heymans and Neil [84H, 85H] established that the autonomic nervous system plays a major role in regulating cardiac function, arterial and venous tone, blood pressure, and heart rate [127S]. In the last 30 years, beginning with a classification of adrenergic receptors by Alquist in 1948 [38A], there has been intense research into every facet of autonomic control of cardiovascular function [1A, 118B, 89K, 44V]. This has included exacting anatomic descriptions of afferent and efferent pathways [4A, 91H], central interconnections [87K], cardiac localization of receptors and nerves [3J, 39K], physiologic description and measurement of diverse reflexes [99C, 106D, 47F, 88K, 58L, 92L], measurement of neurotransmitters [30], the development of selective alpha- and beta-receptor agonists and antagonists [22D, 182W], characterization of the mechanisms of modulation of the release and reuptake of neurotransmitters [241, 10L, 12V, 5Y), and elucidation of the mechanisms of binding and action of agonists and antagonists on cell receptors [33L, 34L, 35R, 172S, 228S, 36W, 37W].