Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society
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Takotsubo syndrome is a recently recognized acute cardiac disease entity with a clinical presentation resembling that of an acute coronary syndrome. The typical takotsubo syndrome patient has a unique circumferential left (bi-) ventricular contraction abnormality profile that extends beyond a coronary artery supply territory and appears to follow the anatomical cardiac sympathetic innervation. The syndrome predominantly affects postmenopausal women and is often preceded by emotional or physical stress. ⋯ The syndrome is usually reversible; nevertheless, during the acute stage, a substantial number of patients develop severe complications such as arrhythmias, heart failure including pulmonary edema and cardiogenic shock, thromboembolism, cardiac arrest, and rupture. Treatment of precipitating factors, predisposing diseases, and complications is fundamental during the acute stage of the disease. The epidemiology, pathogenesis, and management of takotsubo syndrome are reviewed in this paper.
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To assess the test-retest reliability of orthostatic beat-to-beat blood pressure responses to active standing and related clinical definitions of orthostatic hypotension. ⋯ Continuous orthostatic beat-to-beat blood pressure and related clinical definitions show low to moderate reliability and substantial natural variation over a 4-12-week period. Understanding variation in measures is essential for study design or estimating the effects of orthostatic hypotension, while clinically it can be used when evaluating longer term treatment effects.
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To examine symptoms indicating central nervous system (CNS) autonomic dysfunction in pediatric patients with migraine and tension-type headache. ⋯ The need for prospective research investigating autonomic dysfunction in pediatric headache patients is discussed.
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The autonomic maneuvers are simple methods to evaluate autonomic balance, but the association between autonomic maneuvers and heart rate variability (HRV) in hemodialysis patients remains unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between HRV and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) and Valsalva maneuver (VM) indexes in hemodialysis patients and to compare two methods for RSA indexes acquisitions. ⋯ The autonomic maneuvers, especially RSA, are useful methods to evaluate cardiac autonomic function in hemodialysis patients. The acquisition of the RSA index by independent cycles should not be used in this population.