The particular questions asked in our study were: 1. does the individual reproducibility of the cardiovascular reflex tests
differ between healthy controls and patients suffering from type I diabetes mellitus and 2. if there is a difference, do the
different cardiovascular reflexes vary in this regard? Nine healthy controls (4 women, 5 men, age 31±2.1 years) and 11 type
I diabetics (4 women, 7 men, age 30.9±5.6 years, duration of diabetes 3–23 years) underwent the following tests 6 times in
a 12-h period (07
00 to 19
00): variation of heart rate during deep breathing (E/I ratio). variation of heart rate during lying and standing (tachycardia/bradycardia
or 30/15 ratio), Valsalva maneuver (Valsalva ratio), response of diastolic blood pressure to sustained hand grip, and response
of systolic blood pressure to posture. The test results did not indicate a diurnal fluctuation nor were they systematically
influenced by antecedent insulin injections or meals, either in diabetic patients or in healthy, controls. The 11 diabetics
had significantly lower intraindividual variations of E/I and Valsalva ratios than the controls (p<0.05, p<0.001, respectively).
In the diabetics with parasympathetic failure the intraindividual variabilities of all cardiovascular reflex responses were
lower than those of the patients with an intact autonomic nervous system as well as those of the control subjects. On the
contrary, in the diabetic patients without autonomic neuropathy, only the intraindividual variability of the Valsalva maneuver
was significantly attenuated (p<0.025), compared with the healthy volunteers. To conclude, the more pathological the single
test result, the greater is its reproducibility and its clinical significance.
Key-words Cardiovascular reflex tests - Diabetic autonomic neuropathy - Intraindividual reproducibility