AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 247, Issue 6 1013-H1017, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society
Repetitive ramped neck suction: a quantitative test of human baroreceptor function
T. J. Ebert, J. J. Hayes, J. Ceschi, K. J. Kotrly, J. van Brederode and J. J. Smith
Bolus intravenous injection of an alpha-agonist is a widely accepted method
used for studying baroreceptor function. However, the method is invasive,
multiple baroreceptor regions are stimulated, and there are diverse direct
effects of these pharmacologic agents, e.g., direct effects on the carotid
sinus region. A recently described noninvasive neck suction technique may
be highly specific for assessing the carotid sinus to sinoatrial node
baroreflex. We compared neck suction-derived baroslopes with those obtained
from the standard, invasive phenylephrine infusion method. These techniques
were applied to 15 adult volunteers while awake and during 1.34 and 2%
isoflurane anesthesia. The correlation coefficients between the two methods
were 0.74 (P = 0.002) in awake subjects and 0.75 (P = 0.001) overall. The
neck suction method of repetitive, ramped carotid stimuli yielded results
that were qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those of the standard
phenylephrine method. The neck suction method is simple, noninvasive, and
can be repeated at frequent intervals. This method may be highly specific
for determining carotid baroreceptor-cardiac reflex physiology in humans.
