Abstract
The digital plethysmographic patterns of 40 patients (18 males, 22 females) with mild depression, 20 patients with vegetative dysfunction (NCA and climacteric disturbance) and 10 normal subjects as controlled groups, were analyzed from the standpoint of cardiovascular and autonomic nervous system function. The results were as follows : 1) In patients with mild depression, the normal dicrotic waves appeared only in 32.5%, the sclerotic waves in 27.5%, the monophasic waves in 7.5%, the anacrotic waves in 7.5% and the peripheral plateau waves in 25.0%. The pulse wave height ranging more than 4.0 mv/v was found in 40.0%, between 2.0〜3.9 mv/v in 32.5% and less than 1.9 mv/v in 27.5%. These distributions of digital plethysmographic patients with mild depression were far different from the patterns in normal subjects and similar to those in patients with vegetative dysfunction. In these depressive patients, blood pressure and ECG findings were normal and clinically they seemed to have no heart diseases. It was therefore assumed that, in patients with mild depression, their digital plethysmographic patterns were probably infiuenced by the dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. 2) In patients with mild depression, after having changed their position from the supine to the upright, many showed changes in their wave patterns and a marked decrease in their wave height. A T_<II> wave height decrease, which is more than 0.12 mv in ECG records after changing position from the supine to the upright, is recognized as an indicator of the autonomic nervous system dysfunction (by Abe and Tsutsui). This T_<II> height decrease of more than 0.12 mv appeared 16 patients with mild depression, 10 with vegetative dysfunction and 1 normal subject. A correlation between the T_<II> height decrease and the plethysmographic wave height decrease was found in depressive patients. These plethysmographic patterns after changing position suggested the autonomic nervous system dysfunction affects the plethysmographic patterns. Examination of digital plethysmograph is useful for the clinical judgement of depressive patients.
