Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the most sensitive heart rate and blood pressure variability (HRV and BPV) parameters from a given set of well-known methods for the quantification of cardiovascular autonomic function after several autonomic blockades.Methods: Cardiovascular sympathetic and parasympathetic functions were studied in freely moving rats following peripheral muscarinic (methylatropine), β1-adrenergic (metoprolol), muscarinic + β1-adrenergic, α1-adrenergic (prazosin), and ganglionic (hexamethonium) blockades. Time domain, frequency domain and symbolic dynamics measures for each of HRV and BPV were classified through paired Wilcoxon test for all autonomic drugs separately. In order to select those variables that have a high relevance to, and stable influence on our target measurements (HRV, BPV) we used Fisher's Method to combine the p-value of multiple tests.Results: This analysis led to the following best set of cardiovascular variability parameters: The mean normal beat-to-beat-interval/value (HRV/BPV: meanNN), the coefficient of variation (cvNN = standard deviation over meanNN) and the root mean square differences of successive (RMSSD) of the time domain analysis. In frequency domain analysis the very-low-frequency (VLF) component was selected. From symbolic dynamics Shannon entropy of the word distribution (FWSHANNON) as well as POLVAR3, the non-linear parameter to detect intermittently decreased variability, showed the best ability to discriminate between the different autonomic blockades.Conclusion: Throughout a complex comparative analysis of HRV and BPV measures altered by a set of autonomic drugs, we identified the most sensitive set of informative cardiovascular variability indexes able to pick up the modifications imposed by the autonomic challenges. These indexes may help to increase our understanding of cardiovascular sympathetic and parasympathetic functions in translational studies of experimental diseases.

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BackgroundA decline in physical activity levels in older people is related with worsening of quality of life and a lower cardiorespiratory fitness level, which are associated with cardiovascular disease events and mortality from all causes. Evidence supports the potential impact of community-based physical exercise programs (CEXE) on cardiovascular health and quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and cardiovascular risk factors of a CEXE in two communities in Brazil.MethodsAdults with an average age of 70.2 ± 5.4 years were recruited to take part in an individually designed group based CEXE program 2–3 times/ week (aerobic exercise, circuit resistance training and stretching exercises for 1 h each time). Once a week were held competitions to develop the socialization and the ability to collaborate among group members. A CEXE group was compared with a sedentary group. Cardiovascular outcomes were blood pressure (BP), triglycerides, body mass index, waist circumference, high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), total cholesterol, and glycaemia. HRQoL was evaluated with the Short Form-36 (SF-36).ResultsOf the investigated cardiovascular outcome measures, significantly decreased by the CEXE program were systolic BP (5.7 [95%CI 0.2 to 11.3], p < 0.05), and the triglyceride-HDL-C ratio (0.8 [95%CI 0.05 to 1.5], p < 0.05), while HDL-C was significantly increased (4.4 [95%CI 0.02 to 8.8], p < 0.05). A significant improvement in the SF-36 subscales occurred in CEXE but not in the control group: physical functioning score (increase of 24.2 [95%CI 11.8 to 36.5] vs. -9.2 [95%CI -21.5 to 3.2], p < 0.001), physical role functioning score (increase of 35.4 [95%CI 12.8 to 58.0] vs. 16.7 [95%CI -6.0 to 39.3], p < 0.01) and general health score (increase of 23.7 [95%CI 36.9 to 10.4] vs. 2.4 [95%CI -10.9 to 15.7], p < 0.001).ConclusionThis study shows that a 12-week physical exercise program may significantly improve cardiovascular risk and health-related quality of life measures in older people. An important socio-cultural transferable strategy of our physical exercise program was to develop social activities during and outside the CEXE program.# These authors contributed equally to this study

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