Journal Article

Decreased and Increased Baroreceptor Sensitivity Are Associated With Incident Heart Failure in the Elderly: A 15‐Year Follow‐Up Study

Ostrowska, Bozena, Blomström‐Lundqvist, Carina, Lind, Lars

2026

Overview

Aims Congestive heart failure (CHF) is associated with increased mortality. Early identification of individuals at risk for CHF may improve the poor prognosis. Decreased baroreceptor sensitivity (BRS) has been related to higher mortality in CHF. The aim was therefore to explore whether decreased BRS could identify patients at risk for the development of CHF. Methods and Results The PIVUS (Prospective Investigation of the Vasculature in Uppsala Seniors) study (1016 individuals, all aged 70 years) was used for analysis of baroreceptor sensitivity, measured by sequence analysis (BRSseq) and spectral analysis (BRSαHF and BRSαLF). During 15 years of follow‐up, 98/844 individuals developed CHF. Both decreased and increased BRSseq were associated with incident CHF (p = 0.027) after multiple adjustments. A similar pattern was seen for BRSαHF (p = 0.017) in a sex‐adjusted model, but not after multiple adjustment, while BRSαLF was unrelated to incident CHF. Conclusion A decreased BRS was associated with incident CHF in an elderly population. An increased BRS was also found, although to a lesser degree, to be linked to CHF, which was a novel finding. If reproduced in further studies, BRS might prove to be useful for an early identification of CHF in clinical practice. The PIVUS study was used for analysis of baroreceptor sensitivity, measured by sequence analysis (BRSseq) and spectral analysis (BRSαHF and BRSαLF). During 15 years of follow‐up, 98/844 individuals developed CHF. Both decreased and, to a lesser degree, increased BRSseq and BRSαHF were associated with incident CHF, while BRSαLF was not.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc,Wiley
• Subject: Age Factors / Aged / Aged, 80 and over / alpha index / baroreceptor sensitivity / baroreceptors / Baroreflex - physiology / Biomarkers / Blood pressure / Blood Pressure - physiology / Body mass index / Cardiac arrhythmia / Clinical / Diabetes / Electrocardiography / Female / Follow-Up Studies / Fourier transforms / Heart failure / Heart Failure - diagnosis / Heart Failure - epidemiology / Heart Failure - physiopathology / Heart rate / Humans / Hypertension / Incidence / incident heart failure / Male / Nervous system / Older people / Pressoreceptors - physiopathology / Prognosis / Prospective Studies / Risk Assessment / Risk Factors / sequence analysis / Software / spectral analysis / Sweden - epidemiology / Time Factors