The purpose this study was to examine the effects of halothane on baroreflex control of heart rate in developing swine. Serial tests of baroreflex function were performed over the first 2 months of life in eight piglets in the conscious state and during anesthesia with 0.45, 0.9, and 1.35% halothane. Systemic blood pressure was increased with phenylephrine (pressor test) and decreased with nitroprusside (depressor test), and stimulus-response curves relating mean blood pressure to heart rate were constructed. Baroreflex sensitivity was determined as the slope of the linear portion of the curve. Halothane markedly depressed baroreflex sensitivity at all ages in a dose-dependent manner (conscious > 0.45% > 0.9%, 1.35%). Increasing age was accompanied by decreasing baroreflex sensitivity in both the conscious and the anesthetized states. The difference in baroreflex sensitivity between conscious and anesthetized states did not change with age for the depressor test (tachycardia response), but it did change with age for the pressor test (bradycardia response). For this test, conscious values converged toward anesthetized values at higher ages; therefore, there was relatively less depression by halothane at older ages. Halothane also decreased resting heart rate and decreased the limits and narrowed the range of the baroreflex heart rate response. Increasing age was accompanied by a decreasing resting heart rate and by decreasing limits and a narrowing range of the baroreflex response. The effect of halothane on heart rate variables was similar at all ages. Halothane decreased resting blood pressure and decreased the lower limit and widened the span of the baroreflex blood pressure range. Increasing age was accompanied by increasing resting blood pressure and increasing blood pressure limits without change in the range. The effects of halothane on blood pressure limits and range were similar at all ages, but halothane depression of resting blood pressure was greater at higher ages. We conclude that the processes of maturation alter some but not all of the depressant effects of halothane on arterial baroreflex control of heart rate in growing swine.
