Thursday 25 February, 19:00 – 20:00 GMT

Organised by Dr Rachel Lord (Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK) and Dr Jonathan Moore (Bangor University, UK).

The baroreceptor reflex regulates arterial pressure primarily via changes in sympathetic neural activity directed to resistance vessels in skeletal muscle (MSNA). In this webinar, Dr Chloe Taylor (University of Western Sydney, Australia) reviewed approaches currently used to investigate functional characteristics of the vascular sympathetic baroreflex in human health and disease. A particular focus was the pros and cons of assessment using spontaneous fluctuations in arterial pressure and the pharmacologically based modified Oxford method.

Following this, Dr Craig Steinback (University of Alberta, Canada) and Dr Lydia Simpson (Innsbruck University, Austria) described how baroreflex control of MSNA is chronically altered under specific conditions, namely pregnancy and high altitude hypoxia.

Together, these presentations provided a framework to discuss the importance of chronic resetting of the vascular sympathetic baroreflexes for arterial blood pressure regulation around a level that is appropriate for a particular physiological state.