Sympathikus-Überaktivität aus dem Blickwinkel der Kardiologie

Journal für Hypertonie - Austrian Journal of Hypertension 2004; 8 (Sonderheft 2): 13-16

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Keywords: Hypertonie,  Kardiologie,  Sympathikus

Regarding the term "sympathetic over-activation" one has to differentiate between its acute and chronic forms: One the one hand, "acute sympathetic over-activation" is a physiologic reaction of the human organism on acute short-term situations. On the other hand, "chronic sympathetic over-activation" may activate deleterious mechanisms such as myocardial hypertrophy, cardiac remodelling, myocardial toxicity, increased apoptosis of myocardiocytes, decreased betareceptor density, increased atherosclerosis, tachycardias, arterial hypertension, metabolic changes, increased plaque ruptures, increased ventricular arrhythmias, and finally an increase in sudden cardiac death, cardiovascular and overall mortality. Therefore, one of the most important goals in cardiovascular medicine is to avoid or, at least, to decrease sympathetic over-activation in order to decrease the incidence of cardiovascular diseases.