AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 245, Issue 1 18-R24, Copyright © 1983 by American Physiological Society
Post-cough heart rate response: influence of age, sex, and basal blood pressure
J. Y. Wei, J. W. Rowe, A. D. Kestenbaum and S. Ben-Haim
Although the chronotropic response to cough may provide an index of the
capacity for cardioacceleration, how the heart rate change may be
influenced by age is not established. In 213 healthy men and women aged
20-90 yr we measured the heart rate response following three forceful
coughs performed over a 3-s period. Resting heart rate was not age related.
Increasing age was associated with a linear reduction in cough-induced
maximum rise in heart rate (r = -0.58, P less than 0.0001) and a
prolongation of the time to peak heart rate (P less than 0.001). The
responses were not different between women and men. Multiple regression
analysis performed on age and systolic, diastolic, and mean basal arterial
pressure measurements revealed that age was the sole variable that
correlated significantly with peak heart rate response. Thus advancing age
is associated with a decline in the amplitude and rapidity of the
chronotropic response to cough. These age-related changes are independent
of the basal arterial pressure and may contribute to the decreased
cardiovascular homeostatic response to stress, such as upright posture or
volume depletion, which is commonly observed in the elderly.
