Physiological assessment of cardiac autonomic reflexes in diabetics

The cardioautonomic reflexes of 77 diabetic subjects and 23 age and sex matched healthy controls were studied using heart rate variation in response to deep breathing, Valsalva maneuver, standing-up and lying down. Also, the decrease in systolic blood pressure in response to standing-up and the increase in diastolic blood pressure during sustained handgrip were assessed. The study concluded that the autonomic nervous system integrity appeared to be greatly affected by diabetes mellitus in comparison with non-diabetic subjects. The degree of impairment was dependent on the progression of age, increase in body weight, duration of the disease and hyperglycemia