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A Consideration of Recent Criticisms of the T‐wave Amplitude Index of Myocardial Sympathetic Activity
Author(s) -
Furedy John J.,
Heslegrave Ronald J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1983.tb03289.x
Subject(s) - psychology , index (typography) , sympathetic nervous system , medicine , blood pressure , world wide web , computer science
Because of its ventricular origin, T‐wave amplitude (TWA) has been suggested as a plausible candidate index for assessing myocardial sympathetic activity. This idea received some support in the literature but recent (1979–1980) papers from three independent laboratories have criticized the validity of TWA, and have at least implicitly suggested that TWA should be abandoned as a noninvasive sympathetic index. This paper examines these criticisms and finds them to be of questionable validity and certainly not of sufficient strength to support abandoning TWA. Instead, the conclusion drawn here is that we should continue to critically assess both TWA and other noninvasive candidate sympathetic indices by using invasive myocardial indices as criterion measures and both behavioral and pharmacological interventions as manipulations.