Arterial tonometry in the measurement of the effects of innocuous mechanical stimulation of the neck on heart rate and blood pressure

Sympathetic and parasympathetic responses to specific diversified adjustments to chiropractic vertebral subluxations of the cervical and thoracic spine

“…1,6,7,11 Despite the limited evidence suggesting that changes in autonomic activity are consistently linked to chiropractic adjustments, autonomic mediated reflex responses including changes in heart rate, blood pressure (BP), pupillary diameter, and distal skin temperature, as well as, endocrine and immune system effects, have been clearly demonstrated. 1,6,7,[11][12][13][14] Certain of these findings, such as heart rate, BP, and skin temperature, are consistent with observations of chiropractic clinicians regarding the possible relationship between spinal dysfunctions and visceral disorders, keeping in mind that, in this article, "the bulk of the positive data obtained was elicited with noxious stimulation…." 1 The parasympathetic nervous system arises from the cell bodies of the motor nuclei of cranial nerves III, VII, IX, X, and XI in the brainstem and from the second, third, and fourth sacral segments of the spinal cord.…”

Cerebral Perfusion in Patients With Chronic Neck and Upper Back Pain: Preliminary Observations

“…The original idea (in modern terms) that central sensitization resulting from chronic spinal pain includes a domain of clinical effects based on disturbed segmentally organized sympathetic outflow remains elusive to investigation and clinical acceptance. Tantalizing evidence of this has been presented by Sato et al, 75,76 Sato and Swenson, 77 Budgell et al, [78][79][80][81][82][83] Fujimoto et al, 84 and Bolton et al [85][86][87] The idea that sympathetic activation from spinal pain or stimulation of spinal sympathetic ganglia can be associated with or even cause cerebral hypoperfusion also has a long history (posterior cervical sympathetic syndrome of Barré,88,89 cervical migraine, and vertebrogenic migraine). [90][91][92] Nociceptive stimuli from dysfunctional motion segments of the spine activate the segmental sympathetic nervous system, and these somatic afferent stimuli will cause reactions in the preganglionic sympathetic neurons both segmentally [77][78][79][80][81]85 and suprasegmentally.…”

Visceral responses to spinal manipulation

“…The tonometry equipment is costly but technically simple to apply and is a conventional method for monitoring blood pressure during surgery. The first pilot study using arterial tonometry to measure responses to spinal manipulation reported no significant changes or slight decreases in heart rate and blood pressure in alert healthy subjects (n = 11) receiving a series of mechanical cervical stimuli: direct pressure to cervical muscles, slow passive rotations of the neck and high velocity low amplitude manipulations, all of which were characterized as innocuous by the subjects (Fujimoto et al, 1999). Of these stimuli, cervical spinal manipulation produced the largest effects: decreases in systolic and diastolic pressures of 6.8 (S.D.…”