PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Sherwin Asadi
AU  - Victoria Wieser
AU  - Robab Breyer-Kohansal
AU  - Irene Firlinger
AU  - Otto Burghuber
AU  - Arschang Valipour
TI  - Evidence of impaired spontaneous baroreceptor sensitivity in patients with COPD as a potential link to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality
DP  - 2012 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - 1659
VI  - 40
IP  - Suppl 56
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/1659.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/1659.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40
AB  - Objectives: Recent studies suggest reduced cardiac filling pressures in patients with COPD due to hyperinflation. A reduction in cardiac preload may result in unloading of baroreceptors. We thus investigated spontaneous baroreceptor sensitivity, an independent predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, in patients with COPD and controls.Methods: 33 patients with severe airflow obstruction but free from clinical cardiovascular disease (age 64±7yrs, BMI 23±4 kg/sqm, FEV1 27±7%, TLC 140±19%) and 12 age, gender, and body-weight matched controls without airflow obstruction were studied. Spontaneous baroreceptor activity was measured using the sequence method during resting conditions. The baroreceptor effectiveness index was calculated from the total number of baroreceptor sequences divided by the total number of systolic blood pressure ramps.Results: The mean slope of spontaneous baroreceptor sequences (7.0±4.7msec/mmHg vs. 13.5±6.4msec/mmHg, p<0.01) and the baroreceptor effectiveness index (71±54 vs. 103±34, p<0.05) were significantly lower in patients with COPD than controls. There was a significant inverse relationship between the slope of baroreceptor sensitivity (r = -0.302, p < 0.05) and baroreceptor effectiveness index (r = - 0.391, p < 0.01) with RV/TLC ratio. There were no such associations with airflow obstruction.Conclusions: Our findings indicate a link between hyperinflation and baroreceptor function in patients with COPD.