[Rhythmic regulation of pulse and respiration while standing in subjects with stable and labile orthostatic blood pressure].

The pulse and respiration rate of normal people in a recumbant position has a fairly high degree of coordination. This increases in a upright position. In patients with orthostatic hypotension the degree of coordination is fairly low when lying and mostly decreases when standing. - The rhythmic regulation of the bradycard subgroup of the patients with orthostatic hypotension is still relatively strong, but the hypotension is extreme; that of the tachycard subgroup is extremely unstable, but the hypotension is not so marked. As collapse occurs with the same frequency in both subgroups, blood pressure and rhythmic regulation must be able to compensate each other to a certain degree. - Normal values can be detected by observing regulative optima. The marked optimum in an upright position is found by a pulse rate of 80-85 min-1, a respiration rate of 16-18 min-1 and a QP/R of 5. A minor, second optimum exists near a pulse rate of 100-105 min-1, a respiration rate of 14-15 min-1 and a QP/R of 7. - In patients with orthostatic hypotension these optima also can occur but sometimes less markedly. It can thus be accepted that the normal regulative process is latent more or less in ill people. This becomes particularly meaningful for all methods of therapies which strengthen this regulative process. - As in pathological cases a minor, second optimum is found in the regulative process, illness cannot mean a total loss of order but merely a reorganisation.