Effects of ovarian hormones and aging on respiratory sinus arrhythmia and breathing patterns in women

Abstract

We investigated the effect of ovarian hormones and aging on breathing pattern [pulmonary minute ventilation (V(E))], tidal volume (V(T)), breathing frequency (F(b)), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) in women. Recordings of V(E) and electrocardiogram (ECG) were obtained from 23 healthy women (10 premenopausal, 13 postmenopausal) under resting, isocapnic hypoxia (IH), and euoxic hypercapnia (EH) conditions. Premenopausal women were tested on three different days, each day corresponding to a specific phase of the menstrual cycle (follicular, mid-cycle, and luteal); postmenopausal women (PMW) were tested on 1 day only. On each test day, subjects were challenged with IH and EH. The order of the two tests was randomized and separated by at least 1 hour. Due to the low F (b) of several PMW, the band limits for RSA analysis had to be adjusted. The spectral coherence between respiratory flow and ECG RR-interval was used to determine the spectral band. Within the spectral band, there was a consistent phase relationship between the two variables where high values of spectral coherence indicate a well-defined phase relationship between respiratory flow and RR-interval variability. The main findings in this study for RSA are fourfold. First, RSA did not change with different levels of ovarian hormones (progesterone, serum 17beta-estradiol) during the menstrual cycle. Second, RSA was not influenced by hormone replacement therapy. Third, RSA did not change with age. Fourth, RSA did not change with IH and EH-induced changes in breathing patterns. Finally, high individual variability of average RR-interval change per breath was found.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Within-Person Changes in Cardiac Vagal Activity across the Menstrual Cycle: Implications for Female Health and Future Studies

“…A total of 45 studies published between the year 1995 and October 2018 were included in the systematic review [40,42,43,44,45,49,50,51,52,53,54,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90]. Only one of the 45 studies was published in Russian [43]; all others were written in English.…”

“…A total of seven publications ( n individuals = 107) did not report sufficient quantitative data in the manuscript and data could not be retrieved from the corresponding authors after four contact attempts [49,51,60,69,79,81,83]. These studies could not be included in the meta-analysis; however, their general results regarding the comparison between follicular and luteal cycle half are described here: One of the seven studies is consistent with the result of the meta-analysis, as they report a significant decrease in CVA from the follicular to the luteal phase [60].…”

“…Rawal and Saini [79] and Sato and Miyake [81] also found an increase in CVA from the follicular to the luteal phase in their samples; however, in both publications, the authors did not report any inferential statistics regarding this specific comparison. Three of the seven studies [49,51,69] reported no significant differences between their follicular and luteal CVA measures.…”

Current Perspectives for the use of Gonane Progesteronergic Drugs in the Treatment of Central Hypoventilation Syndromes

“…Later studies confirmed both the increase in baseline ventilation due to an effect on respiratory frequency [171] and hyperventilation and lower PaCO 2 during the luteal phase, when progesterone levels are higher than during the follicular phase [41, 172-174]. Similarly, breathing changes related to reduced synthesis of female sexual hormones during menopause confirmed their stimulatory effect, as ventilation is lower and PaCO 2 higher in postmenopausal than premenopausal women [36, 175]. In addition, administration of synthetic progestin to healthy men leads to increased ventilation and decreased PaCO 2 [34, 38, 176].…”

Effect of Menstrual Cycle Phase on the Recovery Process of High-Intensity Interval Exercise—A Cross-Sectional Observational Study

“…Both responses could explain the higher VE observed during the MLP. The increase in VE and inspiratory flow may indicate the influence of progesterone in stimulating the respiratory drive, either centrally as explained above, or peripherally, or by both [ 37 ]. Another possible reason to explain the higher VT and BF during the MLP is the influence of ovarian hormones on the contractile component of respiratory muscles [ 38 ].…”