BACKGROUND Sphygmomanometric blood pressure measurements induce an alerting reaction and thus an increase in the patient's blood pressure and heart rate. Whether and to what extent this "white-coat" effect is accompanied by detectable changes in sympathetic nerve traffic has never been investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS In 10 mild untreated essential hypertensives (age 37.9+/-3. 8 years, mean+...

BACKGROUND This study proposed to assess the autonomic nervous system (ANS) functions in fibromyalgia (FM) by using two electrophysiological tests, sympathetic skin response (SSR) and the heart rate variability named R-R interval variation (RRIV). METHODS Sympathetic skin response and RRIV were studied in 29 female patients with FM and 22 healthy age-matched female controls. R-R interval vari...

The aim of this study was to clarify the response of sympathetic activity to antihypertensive drugs using a mental stress test in hypertensive patients and to determine the effects of antihypertensive drugs on the sympathetic activitymediated hemodynamic response to mental stress. Hypertensive patients were divided into three groups according to the type of drug(s) being taken: a calcium antago...

OBJECTIVE Machado-Joseph disease is an autosomal dominant spinocerebellar ataxia with expanded trinucleotide repeats. Although autonomic nervous system degeneration was documented in postmortem reports, the autonomic dysfunction in patients with Machado-Joseph disease, either in clinical analysis or electrophysiological investigations, has not yet been studied in detail. METHODS Fifteen patie...

PURPOSE We aimed to investigate the utility of sympathetic skin response (SSR) test for evaluating vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) which is the most common type of impotence. MATERIALS AND METHODS Men in the age group of 28 to 60 years and suffering from vasculogenic ED, as confirmed by a papaverin test and color Doppler sonography, at least for 6 months referred from our university ur...

There is no clear definition on the role of sympathetic skin response (SSR) in the evaluation of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). We recorded the SSR of the palms of 64 controls and 46 patients with PD to electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist. We analyzed onset latency and peak-to-peak amplitude. A study of parasympathetic function (R-R interval analysis) was also under...

BACKGROUND Osteoporosis is a common disease characterized by reduction in bone mass, due to depletion of calcium and bone protein. A pivotal role of the sympathetic nervous system in bone remodeling has been considered. On the other hand, elevated central sympathetic activation in postmenopausal women is involved in the creation of vasomotor symptoms. Also, sympathetic skin response (SSR) has b...