Vasomotor sympathetic outflow in the muscle metaboreflex in low birth weight young adults.

A growing body of evidence suggests that low birth weight (LBW) offspring are associated with long-term structural and functional changes in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine systems. We tested the hypothesis that muscle metaboreflex activation produces exaggerated responses in cardiac autonomic tone (represented by heart rate variability ratio) and cutaneous vascular sympathetic tone (represented by plethysmography pulse wave amplitude) in LBW compared to normal birth weight (NBW) young adults. We recruited 23 LBW (18 females and five males) and 23 NBW (14 females and nine males) University of Zimbabwe students with neonatal clinical cards as proof of birth weight at term.