CCMN lecture series: Professor Gareth Ackland, Queen Mary University of London

Abstract: Numerous studies have reported a striking association among depressed autonomic activity (usually measured as reduced heart rate variability), disease severity, and outcome. More sophisticated interrogation of various components of the autonomic nervous system also reveals that the loss of chemoreflex or baroreflex responses is associated with worse clinical outcomes. Emerging laboratory/trial data suggest that autonomic dysfunction serves as an essential biological precursor for priming pathophysiologic responses that subsequently result in multiorgan failure/dysfunction.