IntroductionPrevious studies in experimental animals indicate an important inhibitory interaction between cardiopulmonary and arterial baroreflexes. In the dog, for example, cardiopulmonary vagal afferents modulate carotid baroreflex control of vascular resistance. On the other hand, previous studies in human subjects have not produced convincing evidence of a specific interaction between these baroreceptor reflexes. The purpose of this study was to determine whether unloading of cardiopulmonary baroreceptors in humans with nonhypotensive lower body negative pressure selectively augments the reflex vasoconstrictor responses to simulated carotid hypotension produced by neck pressure. In nine healthy subjects, we measured forearm vascular responses with plethysmography during lower body negative pressure alone (cardiopulmonary baroreflex), during neck pressure alone (carotid baroreflex), and during concomitant lower body negative pressure and neck pressure (baroreflex interaction). Lower body negative pressure produced a greater than twofold augmentation of the forearm vasoconstrictor response to neck pressure. This increase in resistance was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than the algebraic sum of the increase in resistance from lower body negative pressure alone plus that from neck pressure alone. In contrast, lower body negative pressure did not potentiate the forearm vasoconstrictor responses either to intra-arterial norepinephrine or to the cold pressor test. Thus, the potentiation of the vasoconstrictor response to neck pressure by lower body negative pressure cannot be explained by augmented reactivity to the neurotransmitter or to a nonspecific augmentation of responses to all reflex vasoconstrictor stimuli.In Hypotension and hypovolemia often occur together in the clinical setting, so the arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptors are affected simultaneously (1). In most experimental studies of arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreflexes in humans, however, the reflexes have been activated individually, and the possibility of reflex interaction has received little attention (2). In contrast, an important interaction between high and low pressure baroreceptor reflexes has been demonstrated repeatedly in experimental animals (3-12). In the dog, for example, interruption of cardiopulmonary vagal afferents augments vasoconstrictor responses to carotid hypotension ( 12).Baroreflex interactions are obviously more difficult to study in human subjects than in experimental animals. In previous human studies ofthis reflex interaction, cardiopulmonary baroreflexes have been perturbed with lower body negative pressure (LBNP)' and carotid baroreflexes with neck suction. Using these methods, earlier experiments in this laboratory demonstrated that physiologic variations in central venous pressure do not alter carotid baroreflex control of heart rate in humans (13). Previous studies have also examined vascular responses during combined application of LBNP at -40 mmHg and neck suction (14-16). Because LBNP at -4...