[Postural blood pressure variations in primary acute polyradiculitis (author's transl)].

We have explored the baroreceptor reflex on nineteen patients free of all cardiovascular diseases having contracted acute primary polyradiculitis. The tilt test (at 30 degrees from the horizontal line) demonstrates that, at the acute point of the disease, there is a dysregulation of the arterial pressure characterised by an orthostatic hypotension with a lack of normal increase of the peripheric arterial resistances. Once the motor activity restituted, this dysregulation disappears without sequelae. The clinical and pharmacological tests prove a failure in the baroreceptor arc and shows that sympathetic and parasympathetic pathways to the heart and vessels are functionally normal. Thus, this study localizes the defect on the afferent pathways conducting the local information perceived on the baroreceptors.