Clinical trial NCT00515645: Cardiac Autonomic Functions During Head-out Immersion and During Head Down Tilt
Official title: Cardiac Autonomic Functions During Head-out Immersion and During Head Down Tilt
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Healthy
Keywords: Autonomic nervous system
Immersion
Heart rate variability
Head-down tilt
Healthy volunteers
Lead sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Ministry of Health, France
First posted: 2007-08-14
Enrollment: 15
Sex: MALE
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 40
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief summary: Head down tilt (HDT) was widely used to simulate microgravity effects on cardiovascular system. HDT could be a suitable model of water immersion (WI) which is also used to simulate the cardiovascular effects of microgravity and which is not easy to study in laboratory. To define the possibility to simulate immersion by HDT, a comparison between these models is required. A comparison between WI and few angles during HDT seems necessary to understand which angle is more adapt.

The immersion induces an increase of the central blood volume. This increase is caused by a redistribution of blood from peripheral portions of the body to the intrathoracic circulation. It seems to load cardiopulmonary and arterial baroreceptors. These baroreceptors bring into play autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation and induce a bradycardia.

HDT induces an increase in central blood volume as supported by the central venous pressure and cardiac volume increase and in return, MSNA and heart rate decrease. These cardiovascular effects seem to be the same as the thermoneutral immersion and suggest that the ANS activation is the same during HDT and WI.

Nevertheless, a few previous studies about ANS in HDT indicate some discordant results: a sympathetic decrease was reported but several results show an increase of parasympathetic activity linked with a trend of increase of arterial baroreflex. The aim of this study is to assess ANS activity in HDT on different angles (-6° and -15°) and WI. The investigators suppose an increase of parasympathetic activity during WI corresponding to parasympathetic activation during HDT especially at -6°.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Sportsman
* None coffee, alcohol, cigarettes 6 hours before the start of each visit
* Each meal must have been taken 4 hours before each visit
* No intensive sport 48 hours before ech visit
* Written inform consent

Exclusion Criteria:

* Subject with cardiovascular,renal disease or with metabolic syndrome
* Subject with medication
* Subject who participated to an other medical research

Primary outcomes:
measure: heart rate variability
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Blood pressure variability
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: Spontaneous baroreflex activity
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: Pulmonary diffusion
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: Upper limbs vascular resistance
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: post ischemic forearm hyperemia
timeFrame: inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: Hematocrit rate
timeFrame: Inclusion, one week, two weeks
measure: Cardiac haemodynamic
timeFrame: Inclusion, one week, two weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Saint-Etienne
country: France
facility: Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Etienne
Study officials:
affiliation: Centre Hospitalier de Saint-Etienne
name: Frédéric Roche, MD PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Gabrielsen A, Johansen LB, Norsk P. Central cardiovascular pressures during graded water immersion in humans. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1993 Aug;75(2):581-5. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1993.75.2.581.
citation: Shiraishi M, Schou M, Gybel M, Christensen NJ, Norsk P. Comparison of acute cardiovascular responses to water immersion and head-down tilt in humans. J Appl Physiol (1985). 2002 Jan;92(1):264-8. doi: 10.1152/jappl.2002.92.1.264.
citation: Ueno LM, Miyachi M, Matsui T, Takahashi K, Yamazaki K, Hayashi K, Onodera S, Moritani T. Effect of aging on carotid artery stiffness and baroreflex sensitivity during head-out water immersion in man. Braz J Med Biol Res. 2005 Apr;38(4):629-37. doi: 10.1590/s0100-879x2005000400018. Epub 2005 Apr 13.