Interrelationships of Cardiac Output, Blood Pressure, and Peripheral Resistance during Normal Respiration in Normotensive and Hypertensive Individuals

Abstract

The effects of normal respiration upon the heart, blood pressure, and peripheral circulation were studied in normotensive and hypertensive subjects. Changes of right and left ventricular output were measured by the ballistocardiogram and the pressure-pulse method of Remington, peripheral blood flow by plethysmographs. The central and peripheral changes were interrelated and evidence is presented that the latter are chiefly due to the effects of intrathoracic pressure upon cardiac filling.