Short-term cardiovascular responses to rapid whole-body tilting during exercise

Our objective was to characterize the responses of heart rate (HR) and arterial blood pressure (BP) to changes in posture during concomitant dynamic leg exercise. Ten men performed dynamic leg exercise at 50, 100, and 150 W and were rapidly and repeatedly tilted between supine (0°) and upright (80°) positions at 2-min intervals. Continuous recordings of BP and HR were made, and changes in central blood volume were estimated from transthoracic impedance. Short-lasting increases in BP were observed immediately upon tilting from the upright to the supine position (down-tilt), averaging +18 mmHg (50 W) to +31 mmHg (150 W), and there were equally short-lasting decreases in BP, ranging from −26 to −38 mmHg upon tilting from supine to upright (up-tilt). These components occurred for all pressure parameters (systolic, mean, diastolic, and pulse pressures). We propose that these transients reflect mainly tilt-induced changes in total peripheral resistance resulting from decreases and increases of the efficiency of the venous muscle pump. After 3–4 s (down-tilt) and 7–11 s (up-tilt) there were large HR transients in a direction opposite to the pressure transients. These HR transients were larger during the down-tilt (−15 to −26 beats · min−1) than during the up-tilt (+13 to +17 beats · min−1), and increased in amplitude with work intensity during the down-tilt. The tilt-induced HR fluctuations could be modelled as a basically linear function of an arterial baroreflex input from a site half-way between the heart and the carotid sinus, and with varying contributions of fast vagal and slow sympathetic HR responses resulting in attenuated tachycardic responses to hypotensive stimuli during exercise.