Effects of Respiratory-Gated Auricular Vagal Afferent Nerve Stimulation (RAVANS) in Hypertensive Patients During the Handgrip Experiment

Several studies have proposed transcutaneous stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (ABVN) as a non-invasive alternative to vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). In this study we present preliminary results of the effect of respiratory-gated, auricular vagal afferent nerve stimulation (RAVANS) associated with a Handgrip (HG) experiment. Twelve hypertensive subjects underwent three experimental sessions on non-consecutive days. In each session subjects performed HG before and after receiving one of three types of RAVANS stimulation in a counterbalanced order: low-intensity, medium-intensity or sham stimulation. Electrocardiogram recordings were collected and analyzed by point process linear analysis of heartbeat dynamics, and instantaneous time- and frequency-domain features of heart rate variability were estimated. Results provide a preliminary characterization of HG elicited autonomic responses before and after different RAVANS stimulation intensities.