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CORP: Standardizing methodology for assessing spontaneous baroreflex control of muscle sympathetic nerve activity in humans
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

CORP: Standardizing methodology for assessing spontaneous baroreflex control of muscle sympathetic nerve activity in humans

Seth W Holwerda, Jason R Carter, Huan Yang, Jing Wang, Gary L Pierce and Paul J Fadel
American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology, Vol.320(2), pp.H762-H771
02/01/2021
DOI: 10.1152/AJPHEART.00704.2020
PMCID: PMC8082800
PMID: 33275522
url
https://doi.org/10.1152/AJPHEART.00704.2020View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The use of spontaneous bursts of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) to assess arterial baroreflex control of sympathetic nerve activity has seen increased utility in studies of both health and disease. However, methods used for analyzing spontaneous MSNA baroreflex sensitivity are highly variable across published studies. Therefore, we sought to comprehensively examine methods of producing linear regression slopes to quantify spontaneous MSNA baroreflex sensitivity in a large cohort of subjects ( = 150) to support a standardized procedure for analysis that would allow for consistent and comparable results across laboratories. The primary results demonstrated that ) consistency of linear regression slopes was considerably improved when the correlation coefficient was above -0.70, which is more stringent compared with commonly reported criterion of -0.50, ) longer recording durations increased the percentage of linear regressions producing correlation coefficients above -0.70 (1 min = 15%, 2 min = 28%, 5 min = 53%, 10 min = 67%, < 0.001) and reaching statistical significance (1 min = 40%, 2 min = 69%, 5 min = 78%, 10 min = 89%, < 0.001), ) correlation coefficients were improved with 3-mmHg versus 1-mmHg and 2-mmHg diastolic blood pressure (BP) bin size, and ) linear regression slopes were reduced when the acquired BP signal was not properly aligned with the cardiac cycle triggering the burst of MSNA. In summary, these results support the use of baseline recording durations of 10 min, a correlation coefficient above -0.70 for reliable linear regressions, 3-mmHg bin size, and importance of properly time-aligning MSNA and diastolic BP. Together, these findings provide best practices for determining spontaneous MSNA baroreflex sensitivity under resting conditions for improved rigor and reproducibility of results.
Adolescent Adult Aged Arterial Pressure Baroreflex Electrodiagnosis - standards Female Healthy Volunteers Heart Rate Humans Male Middle Aged Muscle, Skeletal - innervation Predictive Value of Tests Reproducibility of Results Retrospective Studies Sympathetic Nervous System - physiology Time Factors United States Young Adult

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