Selection of blood pressure signal for baroreflex analysis

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the strength of the causal coupling among systolic, mean and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, MBP and DBP) with heart period (RR interval) (evaluating cardiac chronotropic baroreflex arm) and peripheral vascular resistance (PVR) (evaluating vascular resistance baroreflex arm) in frequency domain using partial spectral decomposition method. We recorded beat-to-beat RR, SBP, MBP and DBP and PVR values in 39 volunteers during supine rest and head-up tilt. Our results showed that during supine rest the most dominant causal coupling was from DBP to RR in both low and high frequency bands and significantly decreased during orthostasis. The strength of spectral couplings characterized the vascular resistance baroreflex arm did not differ during supine rest in low frequency band and SBP {PVR} direction dominated during HUT in both frequency bands.