[Changes in neurovegetative regulation in the Tourette syndrome (according to ECG findings)]

The authors compared the ECG patterns in 13 patients with Tourette's syndrome (TS) and in 9 patients with temporal epilepsy before and after the administration of atropine. It was found that slowing down of the cardiac rhythm in patients with TS is caused by the prolongation of the period of electrical diastole TP. The P wave was significantly depressed while the T wave was somewhat elevated. Atropine showing a considerable influence on all ECG elements induced the most marked changes in TS patients which is considered as evidence of an increased tone of the vagus nerve in these patients. The electrocardiographic findings allow a conclusion about the normal or even somewhat elevated sympathetic tone of patients with TS. It is suggested that increase in the parasympathetic tone may be secondary to weakened central cholinergic processes while a complex of the peculiarities associated with TS may be considered as physiologic evidence of the shift of the neuromediator balance in the direction of dopaminergic processes with a simultaneous deficit of the central cholinergic component.