Increased vagal tone in adaptation to the effects of continuous stress and termination of cardiac arrhythmias

It was established in experiments on rats exposed to 5 day stress that 1 day stress resulted in a twofold decreased heart fibrillation threshold (HFT) and 5 day stress resulted in bradycardia and in the restoration of HFT to the control level. The restoration of the heart electric stability was due to an increased vagal tone because atropine eliminated the bradycardia and reduced HFT again. Adaptation to continuous 5 day stress increased 3-7-fold the heart resistance to ischemic and reperfusion arrhythmias. This protective effect was completely abolished with atropine. Thus adaptation to continuous mild stress has a potent antiarrhythmic effect which occurs due to the increased vagal tone.