Identification of human sympathetic neurovascular control using multivariate wavelet decomposition analysis

Saleem S, Teal PD, Kleijn WB, Ainslie PN, Tzeng YC. Identification of human sympathetic neurovascular control using multivariate wavelet decomposition analysis. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 311: H837–H848, 2016. First published June 17, 2016; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00254.2016.—The dynamic regulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF) is thought to involve myogenic and chemoreflex mechanisms, but the extent to which the sympathetic nervous system also plays a role remains debated. Here we sought to identify the role of human sympathetic neurovascular control by examining cerebral pressure-flow relations using linear transfer function analysis and multivariate wavelet decomposition analysis that explicitly accounts for the confounding effects of dynamic end-tidal P _CO2 (P _ETCO2 ) fluctuations. In 18 healthy participants randomly assigned to the  ₁ -adrenergic blockade group (n = 9; oral Prazosin, 0.05 mg/kg) or the placebo group (n = 9), we recorded blood pressure, middle cerebral blood flow velocity, and breath-to-breath P _ETCO2 . Analyses showed that the placebo administration did not alter wavelet phase synchronization index (PSI) values, whereas sympathetic blockade increased PSI for frequency components ≤0.03 Hz. Additionally, three-way interaction effects were found for PSI change scores, indicating that the treatment response varied as a function of frequency and whether PSI values were P _ETCO2 corrected. In contrast, sympathetic blockade did not affect any linear transfer function parameters. These data show that very-low-frequency CBF dynamics have a composite origin involving, not only nonlinear and nonstationary interactions between BP and P _ETCO2 , but also frequencydependent interplay with the sympathetic nervous system.