Non-baroreflex mediated heart rate variability causes overestimation of baroreflex sensitivity

Spectral assessment of baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) is hampered by non-baroreflex mediated heart rate variability (HRV), which adds to the baroreflex mediated HRV. Relating HRV (baroreflex output) to blood pressure variability (BPV, baroreflex input) may therefore yield BRS values that are too large. The authors propose to overcome this problem by computing BRS in the Mayer waves (0.05-0.15 Hz), while keeping the non-baroreflex mediated HRV in the high frequency band by 15/min (0.25 Hz) metronome breathing.