Evidence for a vestibulo-cardiac reflex in man.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 11085696.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Changes in posture demand rapid cardiovascular adjustments to maintain blood pressure and volume distribution. We demonstrated a vestibulo-cardiac reflex in supine individuals by measuring electrocardiogram and arterial blood pressure after small backwards drops of the head triggered at varying intervals after the R-spike. In normal volunteers heart rate was accelerated by drops occurring within 500-600 ms of a beat, but no rapid effect was noted in patients with a vestibular defect. The speed at which the vestibular signal of head drop accelerated heart rate implies a direct reflex. Impairment of the vestibulo-cardiac reflex would help to explain the vaso-vagal consequences of labyrinthitis.