Baroreception sensitivity

Baroreception sensitivity indicates how many milliseconds the interval between two heartbeats changes $$RR$$ , if blood pressure changes by 1 mmHg. Physiologically, this is between 10-15 ms → a drop in blood pressure of 10 mmHg will trigger an increase heart rate from 70 beats/min to 80.

Baroreception sensitivity can be measured. Baroreflex oscillates with a frequency of 0.1 Hz due to delays in the regulatory circuit. Thus, by continuously measuring blood pressure and heart rate, we can calculate the baroreeptive sensitivity according to the formula:

$$BRC = \frac{S(f=0.1 Hz)_{RR}}{S(f=0.1 Hz)_{TK}}$$,

where $$BRC$$ is baroreception sensitivity, $$S(f=0.1 Hz)_{RR}$$ spectral performance (amount of rhythm) of the heart rate curve, $$S(f=0.1 Hz)_{TK}$$ spectral performance of the systolic blood pressure curve.

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