Response to Valsalva Maneuver in Humans

Functional metrics of autonomic control of heart rate, including baroreflex sensitivity, have been shown to be strongly associated with cardiovascular risk. A decrease in baroreflex sensitivity with aging is hypothesized to represent a contributing causal factor in the etiology of primary hypertension. To assess baroreflex function in human subjects, two complementary methods to simulate the response in heart rate elicited by the Valsalva maneuver were developed and applied to data obtained from a cohort of healthy normal volunteers.

Data was obtained from 27 participants excluding individuals with histories positive for inherited cardiomyopathy, valvular disease, aneurism, dissection, vascular surgery, pulmonary hypertension, connective tissue disease, or stroke. The data for 27 subjects are presented here where for a given subject two simultaneous recordings have been made. One is for the blood pressure obtained with a Finapres blood pressure monitor and the other is the thoracic pressure during three Valsalva maneuvers (e.g norm001_P).