Post-Heat Stress Cardiovascular Dysregulation

If core temperature is not the primary determinant of heat stroke severity, what is? In this latest podcast, Guest Editor Michael Falvo (VA NJ Health Care System; Rutgers New Jersey Medical School) interviews authors Gerald Audet and Nisha Charkoudian (both of US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine), along with content expert Robert Matthew Brothers (University of Texas at Austin), about the innovative work by Quinn et al centered on a unique rat model seeking to identify the failures of the cardiovascular system after heat stroke, rather than during heat stroke. What role do reactive oxygen species and the systemic inflammatory cascade play in governing heart rate and arterial pressure responses observed by the authors? How does this experimental model translate to patient populations, such as the elderly or workers doing physical labor, whose cardiovascular reserves are already taxed when heat stress or heat stroke occurs? Listen and learn.

Carrie M. Quinn, Gerald N. Audet, Nisha Charkoudian, Lisa R. Leon Cardiovascular and thermoregulatory dysregulation over 24 h following acute heat stress in rats Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published August 15, 2015, DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00918.2014.