A PROGRAM TO ASSESS BARORECEPTOR-CARDIAC REFLEX FUNCTION

This paper describes a computer program for the noninvasive evaluation in the time domain of the part of the baroreceptor reflex that relates blood pressure to interbeat interval from spontaneous hemodynamic patterns in which the reflex is operating. The program obtains the sensitivity of the baroreceptor reflex (slope of the regression line between the interbeat interval and systolic blood pressure in msec/mmHg) and an index of the baroreceptor power to regulate cardiac activity. These statistics are obtained differentially both when the systolic blood pressure is increasing and when it is decreasing. The results obtained by using this software during a mental load task were compared with those obtained through spectral analysis.