Trial reportThe Journal of physiology2018
Acute hydrocortisone administration reduces cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity and heart rate variability in young men.
Trial report in The Journal of physiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of cortisol administration on heart rate variability and functional connectivity across women with different depression histories.Behavioural brain research · 2024Trial
- ACTH Infusion Impairs Baroreflex Sensitivity-Implications for Cardiovascular Hypoglycemia-Associated Autonomic Failure.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2020Trial
- Role of Exercise in Modulating the Brain-Heart Axis in Cardiovascular Diseases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Heart Rate Variability Applications in Medical Specialties: A Narrative Review.Applied psychophysiology and biofeedback · 2025Review
- The Effect of Stress-Reducing Interventions on Heart Rate Variability in Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Prognostic role of short-term heart rate variability and deceleration/acceleration capacities of heart rate in extensive-stage small cell lung cancer.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- The effects of a firefighting simulation on the vascular and autonomic functions and cognitive performance: a randomized crossover study.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Cardio-Hypothalamic-Pituitary Coupling during Rest and in Response to Exercise.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Structural and functional connections between the autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, and the immune system: a context and time dependent stress response network.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2022Review
- Potential metabolomic biomarkers for the identification and diagnosis of type A acute aortic dissection in patients with hypertension.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2022Article
- Association of salivary steroid hormones and their ratios with time-domain heart rate variability indices in healthy individuals.Journal of medical biochemistry · 2021Article
- Psychosocial stress reactivity habituates following acute physiological stress.Human brain mapping · 2020Article
- Therapeutic Effect and Mechanism Study ofEvidence-based complementary and alternative medicine : eCAM · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
key pointsA surge in cortisol during acute physiological and pathophysiological stress may precipitate ventricular arrhythmia and myocardial infarction. Reduced cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity and heart rate variability are observed during acute stress and are associated with an increased risk of acute cardiac events. In the present study, healthy young men received either a single iv bolus of saline (placebo) or hydrocortisone, 1 week apart, in accordance with a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over study design. Hydrocortisone acutely increased heart rate and blood pressure and reduced cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity and heart rate variability in young men. These findings suggest that, by reducing cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity and heart rate variability, acute surges in cortisol facilitate a pro-arrhythmic milieu and provide an important mechanistic link between stress and acute cardiac events ABSTRACT: Surges in cortisol concentration during acute stress may increase cardiovascular risk. To better understand the interactions between cortisol and the autonomic nervous system, we determined the acute effects of hydrocortisone administration on cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), heart rate variability (HRV) and cardiovascular reactivity. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, single-blinded cross-over study, 10 healthy males received either a single iv bolus of saline (placebo) or 200 mg of hydrocortisone, 1 week apart. Heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP) and limb blood flow were monitored 3 h later, at rest and during the sequential infusion of sodium nitroprusside and phenylephrine (modified Oxford Technique), a cold pressor test and a mental arithmetic stress task. HRV was assessed using the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between successive R-R intervals (rMSSD). Hydrocortisone markedly increased serum cortisol 3 h following infusion and also compared to placebo. In addition, hydrocortisone elevated resting HR (+7 ± 4 beats min
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.