Abnormal cardiovascular autonomic regulation in Parkinson's disease

Journal of Clinical and Basic Cardiology 1999; 2 (2): 245-247

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Keywords: Baroreflexsensitivität,  Parkinsonkrankheit,  baroreflex sensitivity,  Morbus Parkinson

Parkinson?s disease (PD) is often associated with an autonomic neuropathy. The extent of autonomic involvement, however is poorly defined and unpredictable. In order to assess the autonomic cardiovascular regulation time and frequency domain indices of heart rate and frequency domain indices of blood pressure the variability was determined non-invasively in 20 patients (age: 66 ± 8 years) with PD. The arbitrarily chosen level of spontaneous linear baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) of 3.5 ms/mmHg served to divide PD patients into subgroups. 12 PD patients exhibited a normal (nBRS), and 8 an impaired (iBRS) BRS. The results were compared with those from 18 healthy age-matched volunteers. The group of iBRS PD patients exhibited marked abnormalities in the other indices of cardiovascular autonomic regulation. In contrast, nBRS PD patients displayed only modest deviations. It is concluded that a decreased BRS is a distinctive feature of the impaired cardiovascular autonomic regulation in this heterogeneous population, and may serve as a selection marker for further assessment. J Clin Basic Cardiol 1999; 2: 245-7.