P5.07 LOCAL VASCULAR PROPERTIES AND AUTONOMIC NERVOUS REACTIVITY IN THE THIRD TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY

DOI

10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.062How to use a DOI?

Abstract

It is known that reproductive hormones influence both local vascular properties and autonomic nervous reactivity. The aim of our study was to measure the small artery compliance, cutaneous LD flux response to local cooling and heart rate variability in women in the third trimester of normal pregnancy (group A) and in nonpregnant women in the follicular (group Bf) and the luteal phase (group Bl) of menstrual cycle.

Experiments were performed on 19 pregnant women and in 12 age-matched non-pregnant females. A noninvasive method was used to determine finger artery compliance. Spectral analysis of RR intervals was performed using autoregression and the area under the power spectrum was evaluated using the standard frequency bands.

Our results revealed a decrease in parasympathetic and an increase in sympathetic activity during third trimester of pregnancy. The diastolic blood pressure in group A (60.6±2.5 mmHg) was significantly lower then in both subgroups Bf and Bl (74.3±3.0 and 76.3±4, p<0.01), the heart rate (HR) was increased in group A (82.5±1.7bpm) compared to Bf (66.9±3.4bpm) and Bl (69.7±3.6bpm). In contrast there were no statistically significant differences in systolic blood pressure and finger artery compliance (1.35±0.26 in A, 1.55±0.24 in Bf and 1.40±0.11 in Bl). During cooling arterial pressure and HR increased while CI decreased significant only in group A but not in subgroups Bf and Bl. LD flux decreased significantly less in group A compared to groups Bf and Bl.

Our findings suggest that reproductive hormones exert more influence on local vascular mechanisms than on central autonomic reactivity.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license.

Download article (PDF)
View full text (HTML)

TY  - JOUR
AU  - N. Potocnik
AU  - K. Cankar
AU  - Z. Melik
AU  - V. Starc
PY  - 2009
DA  - 2009/12/03
TI  - P5.07 LOCAL VASCULAR PROPERTIES AND AUTONOMIC NERVOUS REACTIVITY IN THE THIRD TRIMESTER OF PREGNANCY
JO  - Artery Research
SP  - 175
EP  - 175
VL  - 3
IS  - 4
SN  - 1876-4401
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.062
DO  - 10.1016/j.artres.2009.10.062
ID  - Potocnik2009
ER  -