Autonomic neural control of the cardiovascular system in patients with Behcets disease in the absence of neurological involvement

Erol T et al. – This study shows that the patients with behcet’s disease have normal heart rate recovery at 1 min and normal systolic blood pressure response to exercise and normal heart rate variability. These findings might suggest unaltered autonomic neural control of the cardiovascular system in this disorder in the absence of neurological involvement.

Methods

• The study population consisted of 32 patients with BD and 30 healthy controls who were matched with respect to age, sex, and physical activity.
• Heart rate recovery was calculated as the difference between heart rate at peak exercise and heart rate at 1, 2, and 3 min of recovery.
• Blood pressure recovery indexes were determined by dividing the systolic blood pressure at 2 and 3 min in recovery to the systolic blood pressure at peak exercise.

Results

• In patients with BD, mean HRR at 1 min (HRR1) were not significantly different than that of controls (21 ± 7 vs 20 ± 7 bpm, p = 0.50).
• Although, resting mean SBP of patients with BD was higher than controls (121 ± 13 vs 115 ± 12 mmHg, p = 0.039), the SBP recovery indices of the patients with BD at 2 and 3 min were similar to those of controls (0.84 ± 0.07 vs 0.84 ± 0.09, p = 0.89 and 0.78 ± 0.09 vs 0.78 ± 0.08, p = 0.93, respectively).
• Both time domain and frequency domain parameters of patients with BD were similar to that of controls.

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