Sympathetic nerve activity in arm and leg muscles during lower body negative pressure in humans

Nonhypotensive lower body negative pressure (LBNP) is reported to decrease forearm but not calf blood flow as measured by strain-gauge plethysmography. This suggests that unloading of cardiopulmonary receptors increases sympathetic outflow to arm but not to leg. To test this hypothesis we measured muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSA) in the arm (radial nerve) and leg (peroneal nerve) simultaneously during LBNP. In eight healthy subjects, we measured heart rate, blood pressure, and radial and peroneal MSA during LBNP at 10 and 20 mmHg. There was no difference between radial and peroneal MSA at rest, and there were successive parallel increases of MSA in both nerves during LBNP at 10 and 20 mmHg. These data indicate that there are nearly identical increases of sympathetic outflow to the arm and leg during mild to moderate degrees of orthostatic stress.