Anesthesia and Cardiovagal Baroreflex Responses

Abstract

  Despite the 70-year-long research history of arterial baroreflex function, it has only been a decade since the clinical implications of this fundamental circulatory reflex have been clearly defined. In 1998, the ATRAMI (Autonomic Tone and Reflexes After Myocardial Infarction) study published in the Lancet first demonstrated the prognostic value of cardiovagal baroreflex gain after myocardial infarction. Another important discovery in the last decade has been the gender difference in cardiovagal baroreflex function. In addition to these, methodologies of measuring baroreflex gains and effects of anesthetics and anesthesia-related medications on these reflex responses will be briefly discussed.