Detecting changes in the heart rate of firefighters to prevent smoke inhalation and health effects

Prolonged or intense exposure to heat can lead to a range of health effects. This study investigated heat exposure and heat-related symptoms which sugarcane workers (90 sugarcane cutters and 93 factory workers) experienced during a harvesting season in Thailand. During the hottest month of harvesting season, wet bulb globe temperature was collected in the work environment, and workloads observed, to assess heat stress. Urine samples for dehydration test, blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature were measured pre- and post-shift to measure heat strain. Fluid intake and heat-related symptoms which subjects had experienced during the harvesting season were gathered via interviews at the end of the season. From the results, sugarcane cutters showed high risk for heat stress and strain, unlike factory workers who had low risk based on the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygiene (ACGIH) threshold limit values (TLVs) for heat stress. Dehydration was observed among sugarcane cutters and significant physiological changes including heart rate, body temperature, and systolic blood pressure occurred across the work shift. Significantly more sugarcane cutters reported experiencing heat-related symptoms including weakness/fatigue, heavy sweating, headache, rash, muscle cramp, dry mouth, dizziness, fever, dry/cracking skin, and swelling, compared to sugarcane factory workers. We conclude that the heat stress experienced by sugarcane cutters working in extremely hot environments, with high workloads, is associated with acute health effects. Preventive and control measures for heat stress are needed to reduce the risk of heat strain.

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Differences in Recumbent, Ecstatic Trance Postures in Terms of Dream Recall, Imagined Interactions, and Heart Rate

Imagination Cognition and Personality ◽

10.1177/0276236617743006 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 38 (1) ◽

pp. 31-48

Author(s):

James M. Honeycutt

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Health Effects ◽

Health Benefits ◽

Scientific Research ◽

Spiritual Practice ◽

Dream Recall ◽

Intrapersonal Communication ◽

Wide Range ◽

Imagined Interactions

Research has demonstrated the health benefits of a wide range of spiritual practices such as meditation and prayer, and similar nonspiritual practices like mindfulness. Shamanism is a spiritual practice that uses dream recall during ecstatic trances, and scientific research has shown health benefits of dream recall. Researchers have long realized the importance of intrapersonal communication occurring in daydreams, called imagined interactions (IIs), and recently extended the theory to include night dreams. IIs serve six functions: rehearsal, relational maintenance, catharsis, conflict-linkage, self-understanding, and compensation. This study investigates the health effects of ecstatic posture on dream recall in conjunction with the functions of IIs. Results indicate that ecstatic posture while recalling dreams is associated with both heart rate and heart rate variability. However, the II function determines whether the effect is positive or negative.

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Type-D Personality in Unemployed Subjects: Prevalence, Self-Efficacy and Heart Rate Variability/Autonomic Response

The Open Psychology Journal ◽

10.2174/1874350101710010094 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 94-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Katja Petrowski ◽

Katharina Wendt ◽

Susann Wichmann ◽

Martin Siepmann

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Health Effects ◽

Self Efficacy ◽

Stress Test ◽

Type D Personality ◽

Autonomic Response ◽

Stress Tests ◽

Public Health Perspective ◽

Type D

Background:Unemployment may impair mental and physical health. The influencing factors causing such negative effects are relevant from an individual and public health perspective. The personality as one possible influencing factor was discussed. This study investigated the prevalence of the type-D personality in an unemployed population and its connections to socio-demographic, psychological and heart rate variability (HRV) parameters.Methods:A questionnaire set including socio-demographics, type-D scale (DS14), Complaint list (BL), Beck-Depression-Inventory II (BDI-II) and the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE) was handed out to 203 unemployed individuals [126 females, mean age ± SD: 42.36 ± 11.08]. For HRV assessment (RMSSD), a subsample of 83 participants [50 females, median age ± IQR: 47.00 ± 17.00] passed the “stress-tests” (timed breathing, d2-attention-stress-test, math test) while heart frequency (HF) was acquiredviathe Stressball software (BioSign GmbH, Ottenhofen, Germany).Results:53% of the unemployed had a type-D personality. Compared to non-type-D individuals, type-D individuals had rarely children and by trend a lower educational level; they showed significantly higher scores in the BDI-II and lower scores in the GSE and BL. No differences were observed in mean HF or RMSSD during all the stress-tests.Conclusion:The HRV of individuals with a type-D personality is no worse than that of individuals without a type-D personality. Type-D personality was significantly associated with negative health effects regarding depressiveness, self-efficacy and physical complaints. Our main findings implicate that the DS14 could serve as a short and reliable screening instrument to select concerned unemployed individuals who might be at risk for negative health effects for adequate intervention.

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Altered autonomic control in conscious transgenic rabbits with overexpressed cardiac Gsα

AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpheart.00791.2006 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 292 (2) ◽

pp. H971-H975 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Takao Nishizawa ◽

You-Tang Shen ◽

Franco Rossi ◽

Chull Hong ◽

Jeffrey Robbins ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Failure ◽

Heart Rate ◽

Conscious State ◽

Left Ventricular ◽

Autonomic Control ◽

Smoke Inhalation ◽

Lv Function ◽

Baseline Heart Rate ◽

Arterial Baroreflex ◽

Transgenic Rabbits

Both enhanced sympathetic drive and altered autonomic control are involved in the pathogenesis of heart failure. The goal of the present study was to determine the extent to which chronically enhanced sympathetic drive, in the absence of heart failure, alters reflex autonomic control in conscious, transgenic (TG) rabbits with overexpressed cardiac Gsα. Nine TG rabbits and seven wild-type (WT) littermates were instrumented with a left ventricular (LV) pressure micromanometer and arterial catheters and studied in the conscious state. Compared with WT rabbits, LV function was enhanced in TG rabbits, as reflected by increased levels of LV dP/d t (5,600 ± 413 vs. 3,933 ± 161 mmHg/s). Baseline heart rate was also higher ( P < 0.05) in conscious TG (247 ± 10 beats/min) than in WT (207 ± 10 beats/min) rabbits and was higher in TG after muscarinic blockade (281 ± 9 vs. 259 ± 8 beats/min) or combined β-adrenergic receptor and muscarinic blockade (251 ± 6 vs. 225 ± 9 beats/min). Bradycardia was blunted ( P < 0.05), whether induced by intravenous phenylephrine (arterial baroreflex), by cigarette smoke inhalation (nasopharyngeal reflex), or by veratrine administration (Bezold-Jarisch reflex). With veratrine administration, the bradycardia was enhanced in TG for any given decrease in arterial pressure. Thus the chronically enhanced sympathetic drive in TG rabbits with overexpressed cardiac Gsα resulted in enhanced LV function and heart rate and impaired reflex autonomic control. The impaired reflex control was generalized, not only affecting the high-pressure arterial baroreflex but also the low-pressure Bezold-Jarisch reflex and the nasopharyngeal reflex.

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Vitamin C modifies the cardiovascular and microvascular responses to cigarette smoke inhalation in man

Clinical Science ◽

10.1042/cs0980455 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 98 (4) ◽

pp. 455-460 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

J. GAMBLE ◽

P. S. GREWAL ◽

I. B. GARTSIDE

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Vitamin C ◽

Cigarette Smoke ◽

Animal Studies ◽

Inflammatory Diseases ◽

Cuff Pressure ◽

Smoke Inhalation ◽

Inflammatory Conditions ◽

Microvascular Changes ◽

Pre Treatment

Both neutrophil margination and increases in the non-invasively assessed parameter, isovolumetric venous congestion cuff pressure (Pvi), are symptomatic of some inflammatory diseases. Neutrophil margination occurs primarily, though not exclusively, at the post-capillary endothelial surface. The local haemodynamic changes resulting from margination may be responsible for the observed increases in Pvi. Smoke inhalation has been shown in animal studies to cause an increase in post-capillary neutrophil margination by mechanisms that can be blocked by oral vitamin C administration. We looked for indices of a relationship between margination and Pvi in man, using cigarette smoke inhalation as a pathophysiological challenge. We also examined the effect of prophylactic vitamin C on the response. Smoke inhalation was associated with highly significant increases in both Pvi and heart rate. After vitamin C pre-treatment, no increase in Pvi was observed in response to the smoke inhalation; however, whilst heart rate still increased significantly, the duration of this response was attenuated. The results suggest that vitamin C affords protection against some of the cardiovascular and microvascular changes associated with cigarette smoke inhalation in man. They also support the notion that non-invasive assessment of changes in Pvi may provide a measurable index of systemic changes in inflammatory conditions.

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APPLYING ANALYSIS OF HEART RATE VARIABILITY IN A PILOT STUDY ON HEALTH EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO CHRONIC AIRCRAFT NOISE

Epidemiology ◽

10.1097/00001648-200309001-00241 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 14 (Supplement) ◽

pp. S100-S101

Author(s):

C EW Herr ◽

H Seitz ◽

R Faske ◽

B Waldecker ◽

N IF Stilianakis ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Pilot Study ◽

Health Effects ◽

Aircraft Noise

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Progression and variability of physiologic deterioration in an ovine model of lung infection sepsis

Journal of Applied Physiology ◽

10.1152/japplphysiol.00122.2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 123 (1) ◽

pp. 172-181 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Farid Yaghouby ◽

Chathuri Daluwatte ◽

Satoshi Fukuda ◽

Christina Nelson ◽

John Salsbury ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Blood Pressure ◽

Heart Rate ◽

Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus ◽

Lung Infection ◽

Smoke Inhalation ◽

Infection Model ◽

Smoke Inhalation Injury ◽

Methicillin Resistant ◽

Hemodynamic Deterioration

In this study, a lung infection model of pneumonia in sheep ( n = 12) that included smoke inhalation injury followed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus placement into the lungs was used to investigate hemodynamic and pulmonary dysfunctions during the course of sepsis progression. To assess the variability in disease progression, animals were retrospectively divided into survivor ( n = 6) and nonsurvivor ( n = 6) groups, and a range of physiological indexes reflecting hemodynamic and pulmonary function were estimated and compared to evaluate variability in dynamics underlying sepsis development. Blood pressure and heart rate variability analyses were performed to assess whether they discriminated between the survivor and nonsurvivor groups early on and after intervention. Results showed hemodynamic deterioration in both survivor and nonsurvivor animals during sepsis along with a severe oxygenation disruption (decreased peripheral oxygen saturation) in nonsurvivors separating them from survivor animals of this model. Variability analysis of beat-to-beat heart rate and blood pressure reflected physiologic deterioration during infection for all animals, but these analyses did not discriminate the nonsurvivor animals from survivor animals. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Variable pulmonary response to injury results in varying outcomes in a previously reported animal model of lung injury and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus-induced sepsis. Heart rate and blood pressure variability analyses were investigated to track the varying levels of physiologic deterioration but did not discriminate early nonsurvivors from survivors.

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Baroreceptor heart rate reflex in rabbits after reversal of renal hypertension

AJP Heart and Circulatory Physiology ◽

10.1152/ajpheart.1984.246.2.h261 ◽

1984 ◽

Vol 246 (2) ◽

pp. H261-H266 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

P. J. Fletcher

Keyword(s):

Blood Pressure ◽

Heart Rate ◽

Renal Hypertension ◽

Smoke Inhalation ◽

Sigmoid Function ◽

Lower Heart Rate ◽

Baroreflex Control ◽

Heart Rate Data ◽

Functional Changes ◽

Reflex Bradycardia

The baroreceptor heart rate reflex was studied in 26 renal hypertensive and 17 normotensive rabbits and in 13 rabbits after reversal of hypertension. Blood pressure and heart rate were varied by bolus injections of methoxamine or nitroglycerine in conscious rabbits, and a logistic sigmoid function was fitted to the pressure-heart rate data to estimate upper and lower heart rate plateaus, median blood pressure, and reflex sensitivity. In hypertensive rabbits, resetting of the blood pressure-heart rate curves to higher pressures was associated with reduced reflex sensitivity, increased lower heart rate plateau, and operating pressures significantly greater than the region of maximum reflex sensitivity, resulting in substantial attenuation of reflex bradycardia in response to hypertension. Reflex bradycardia after smoke inhalation was normal. Reversing the hypertension completely reversed the abnormalities in baroreflex control of heart rate. Renal hypertension in the rabbit produces functional changes that are completely reversible in the baroreceptor-heart rate reflex, probably in the afferent limb.

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