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Don't Miss a Beat: The Nerve of Autonomic Regulation

The autonomic nervous system innervates every organ and tissue in the body and is critical for normal bodily function. When autonomic nerves regulating the heart and blood vessels are impaired by injury or illness, there can be profound disruption to blood pressure control, with episodes of extreme hypotension and syncope (fainting), as well hypertensive episodes known as autonomic dysreflexia, that can be life threatening. Impacts of autonomic disruption on heart rate, rhythm and force of contraction are also profound, with difficulty mounting appropriate responses to exercise, and autonomic abnormalities can lead to cardiac arrhythmia. In this seminar we will explore some of the autonomic complications of spinal cord injury, and syncopal disorders, as well as a phenomenon known as autonomic conflict, which may predispose to cardia arrhythmias, even in apparently healthy people.