Autonomic Function Tests in Asthmatics of Age 25-46 Years in Central India

Introduction: Increased parasympathetic drive in asthmatics is observed by many researchers. However, some have found increased sympathetic activity and others found it decreased.Materials and Methods: A case–control study was planned including 30 asthmatic patients and 30 age-matched non-asthmatics as controls. Spirometry and autonomic functions were tested, and results of the mean difference were compared using the Student t-test.Results: Out of 30 asthmatics, 76% were in mild-to-moderate grade of asthma on the basis of their forced expiratory volume in the first second % values. Rise in diastolic blood pressure with cold pressor test was significantly less in asthmatics than controls (5.66 ± 3.415 and 11.73 ± 4.49 mmHg; P < 0.001). The mean Valsalva ratio in asthmatics was significantly less than in controls (1.158 ± 0.116 and 1.418 ± 0.645; P < 0.05). Galvanic skin resistance in asthmatics was significantly more than in controls (589.8 ± 268.12 and 328.75 ± 165.07; P < 0.001).Conclusions: Thus, from our study, there was increased parasympathetic and decreased sympathetic drive in patients with bronchial asthma as compared to controls

Assessment of Cardiovascular Autonomic Function in Asymptomatic Obese Young Adults – Prevention is Better than Cure.

Back ground: Obesity is emerging global epidemic in young adults who form the productive group of the society. This has been called as new world syndrome and is a massive reflection of social, economic and cultural problems currently faced by the developing and developed countries. As cardiac autonomic dysfunction often coexists with obesity, early detection of autonomic impairment by simple investigations of autonomic function, can be potentially important to prevent future complications. Objective: To identify cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction in asymptomatic obese young adults. Study design: This study was conducted in the department of Physiology at Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal, A.P, 30 apparently healthy obese subjects of both sex with BMI > 25 kg/sqm were taken as study group. Age and sex matched 30 normal weight subjects (BMI 18.5-22.9 kg/ sqm) taken as control group. Methods: Ewing’s battery of 5 noninvasive cardiovascular reflex tests were done for assessing autonomic function. These autonomic function parameters were correlated with BMI, Unpaired Student‘t’ test and Pearson correlation coefficient test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Mean values of all cardiovascular reflex tests were significantly lower in the study group. Conclusion: The results indicate that cardiovascular autonomic dysfunction is present in otherwise healthy obese young adults.

A study of autonomic nervous system status in children of asthmatic parents.

Asthmatic patients are known to have autonomic abnormalities. This study evaluated the status of autonomic nervous system in children of asthmatic parents for any occurrences of autonomic abnormalities that are known to occur in asthma. In this study autonomic function tests were conducted in children (5 to 10 years of age) divided into two groups: Group A had children from non-asthmatic parents as Control Group and Group B had children from asthmatic parents as Test Group. Both the groups had healthy children showing no clinical signs and symptoms of asthma, allergy or any illness known to affect autonomic nervous system. In response to various parasympathetic function tests (S/L ratio, 30:15 ratio, valsalva ratio and tachycardia ratio) and sympathetic function tests (handgrip test and cold pressor test) done, the two groups did not show any statistically significant dissimilarity for any of the parameters. The results of our study showed that there were no autonomic abnormalities found in the children of asthmatic parents. Thus this study indicates that the autonomic defects seen in asthmatics could be secondary to asthma and not because of autonomic aberrations inheritance in asthmatics as shown by earlier few studies supporting the possible role of inherited automatic reactivity in the pathogenesis and progression of asthma.

Comparison of cardiac autonomic functions among postmenopausal women with and without hormone replacement therapy, and premenopausal women.

The aim of present study was comparison of cardiac autonomic status during different phases of reproductive life in women – in premenopausal women between proliferative and secretory phase, in postmenopausal women and in postmenopausal women receiving hormone replacement therapy (HRT). The study included 30 premenopausal women (Group 1) who were assessed in both proliferative (Group 1A) and secretory phase (Group 1B) of menstrual cycle, 30 postmenopausal women (Group 2) and 30 postmenopausal women on HRT (Group 3). Various autonomic function tests were done to assess parasympathetic and sympathetic functions. Results were obtained by ANOVA followed by Tukey test. The postmenopausal women (Group 2) showed increased sympathetic and decreased parasympathetic tone compared to premenopausal women (Groupl). The women on HRT (Group 3) showed parasympathetic dominance and decrease in sympathetic activity compared to postmenopausal women (Group 2). Across the menstrual cycle, increased parasympathetic activity was seen in secretory phase while no change was observed in the sympathetic activity in the two phases.