World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

ASSESSMENT OF CARDIOVASCULAR AUTONOMIC FUNCTION

Dr. Sandhya M., Dr. Ashwini A Mahadule*, Dr. Annu Kumari, Dr. Rajesh Kathrotia, Dr. Arun Goel, Dr. Prashant M Patil and Dr. Sunita Mittal

ABSTRACT

Autonomic nervous system integrates and regulates the function of visceral organs to provide logistic support for survival enabling the body to cope up with exercise, stress, and other physical and mental activities. Autonomic failure results in mild-to-severe degree of life-threatening situation depending on the degree of dysfunction. Autonomic failure is encountered in many clinical conditions as primary disorder or secondary disorders such as diabetes mellitus, alcoholism, amyloidosis etc. In these conditions clinical assessment may not be sufficient to quantify the degree of autonomic failure. Clinical symptoms of autonomic failure may appear late in the course of disease. In these conditions, early detection, and quantification of degree of loss of autonomic function can be made by a series of autonomic function tests. In some cases, such as myocardial infarction, quantification of autonomic impairment holds a promise to be of predictive value for the survival. Thus clinically, the value of autonomic functions testing is being increasingly recognized in the evaluation and management of several disorders where the autonomic function is compromised.[1]

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