NERVOUS INFLUENCES UPON THE HEART DUE TO OVERDISTENSION OF THE URINARY BLADDER: THE RELATION OF ITS MECHANISM TO VAGO-VAGAL REFLEX

Abstract

1. In two patiens suffering from urinary retention of various causes, appearance of arrhythmias were seen at the time of overdistension of the urinary bladder, which promptly disappeared by emptying of the bladder by catheterisation.
2. Experimental overdistension of the urinary bladder in animals resulted in transitory fall of blood pressure, pictures of coronary insufficiency in EKG and/or appearance of arrhythmias. These changes disappeared by relieving the bladder of overdistension.
3. In guinea pigs it was shown that the EKG changes produced by over-distension of the urinary bladder were erased by transection of the spinal cord between the lumbar and sacral segment.
4. Using electrophysiological technic, it was shown that the nervous transmission from the bladder wall to the heart was related to vago-vagal reflex.
This research was reported at the 11th Congress of the Japanese branch of the international neurovegetative research, on the 8th July 1962.