Power spectral analysis of blood pressure variability in traumatic quadriplegic humans

A study was performed on seven traumatic neurologically complete quadriplegic (QP) males and seven age-matched healthy males (control) while they were at rest in the supine position in a climatic chamber (temperature 30 degrees C, relative humidity 60%). Arterial blood pressure waveforms were measured by a continuous noninvasive blood pressure-monitoring system based on arterial tonometry. Furthermore, the spontaneous beat-to-beat systolic blood pressure (SBP) variabilities of subjects were investigated by means of autoregressive power spectral analysis. As shown by earlier studies with an invasive (intra-arterial) blood pressure-monitoring system, in the control group there were two major spectral components: a high-frequency (HF) component [center frequency 0.27 +/- 0.02 (SE) Hz eq, power 0.9 +/- 0.2 mmHg2] and a low-frequency (LF) component (0.10 +/- 0.01 Hz eq, 5.2 +/- 1.4 mmHg2). On the contrary, in the QP group only the HF component was observed (0.28 +/- 0.03 Hz eq, 3.2 +/- 1.4 mmHg2). The results suggest that 1) in the QP subject the disappearance of the LF component in the SBP variability (i.e., the Mayer waves in humans) is presumably caused by the interruption of the spinal pathways linking supraspinal cardiovascular centers with the peripheral sympathetic outflow and 2) the cervical spinal sympathetic pathways may be instrumental in the genesis of the Mayer waves in humans.