Cardiovascular autonomic function tests to provide normative data from a healthy older population

We aimed to derive normative data for cardiovascular autonomic function tests (AFT) in an older population using new measures. The AFT were performed in 48 healthy control subjects. The average heart rate (HR) response to deep breathing (DB) (HRDB), Valsalva ratio (VR), magnitude of the HR and blood pressure (BP) response of different phases of the Valsalva maneuver, BP recovery times (PRT 100 and PRT 50) and HR and BP changes on head-up tilting were calculated. The mean age (±standard deviation) of study participants was 58 ± 14.5 years (range 20-82 years), of whom 29 (60%) were men. The systolic blood pressure (SBP) early phase 2 amplitude showed an inverse relationship with age (p = 0.03). There was a trend for progressive attenuation of SBP late phase 2 amplitude with age (p = 0.09). The systolic BP recovery time was not affected by age, gender or body mass index. We concluded that age has a significant effect on most AFT variables. Age and gender did not influence the systolic BP recovery time; hence, systolic BP recovery time could be useful in the evaluation of adrenergic failure.