Respiratory and cardiovascular responses to increased and decreased carotid sinus pressure in sleeping dogs.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of changing blood pressure in the carotid sinus (Pcs) on ventilatory output during wakefulness and non-rapid-eye-movement sleep in unanesthetized dogs. Eight dogs were chronically instrumented so that ventilation, heart rate, and blood pressure could be measured while pressure in the isolated carotid sinus was rapidly changed by means of an extracorporeal perfusion circuit. Raising Pcs 35-75 mmHg consistently reduced ventilation 15-40% in a dose-response fashion, with little or no further diminution in minute ventilation as Pcs was further increased > 75 mmHg above control level. This decrease in minute ventilation was immediate, due primarily to a decrease in tidal volume, and was sustained over the 20-s period of elevated Pcs. Increases in Pcs also caused immediate sustained reductions in systemic blood pressure and heart rate, both of which also fell in a dose-dependent fashion. The ventilatory and systemic cardiovascular responses to increased Pcs were the same during wakefulness and non-rapid-eye-movement sleep. Decreasing Pcs 40-80 mmHg caused a sudden carotid chemoreceptor-mediated hyperpnea that was eliminated by hyperoxia. We conclude that increasing Pcs causes a reflex inhibition of ventilation and that this reflex may play a role in sleep-disordered breathing.