American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology
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Am. J. Physiol. Regul. Integr. Comp. Physiol. · Jan 2006
Randomized Controlled TrialSympathetic overactivity in active ulcerative colitis: effects of clonidine.
Previous reports suggest that inflammatory bowel diseases may be accompanied by abnormalities in the neural autonomic profile. We tested the hypotheses that 1) an exaggerated sympathetic activity characterizes active ulcerative colitis (UC) and 2) a reduction of sympathetic activity by clonidine would be associated with clinical changes of UC. In 23 patients with UC and 20 controls, muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA), ECG, blood pressure, and respiration were continuously recorded, and plasma catecholamine was evaluated both at rest and during a 75 degrees head-up tilt. ⋯ Changes of the autonomic profile after clonidine were associated with reduction of DAI score. An overall increase of sympathetic activity characterized active UC. Normalization of the autonomic profile by clonidine was accompanied by an improvement of the disease.