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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Autonomic Neuroscience
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1542224
The Assessment of Autonomic Nervous Function in Patients with Gastrointestinal Malignancies and Its Relationship with Clinical Characteristics
Provisionally accepted
Xiwen Zhang 1
Chunlin Wang 2* Yu Peng 3* Qiyun Feng 3
Chuqiao Li 4 Anqi Jiang 4 Zhenzhen Wu 2 Qiong Deng 4- 1 Zaozhuang City Mental Health Center, Zaozhuang, China
- 2 Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
- 3 Department of Neurology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
- 4 Department of Neurology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
The gastrointestinal tract is the organ most extensively distributed by autonomic nerves, and researches have indicated a relationship between automatic nerves and the progression of gastrointestinal cancers.This study aimed to evaluate the autonomic nervous function in patients with gastrointestinal cancer and to explore its relationship with clinical characteristics. We employed the Composite Autonomic Symptom Score 31 (COMPASS-31) questionnaire and cardiovascular autonomic reflex tests (CARTs) to evaluate autonomic nervous function, while also conducting a thorough analysis of clinical data. Our results showed that low white blood cell (WBC) count (OR = 0.461, 95% CI: 0.218-0.976, P = 0.043) and increased maximum tumor diameter (OR = 1.619, 95% CI: 1.025-2.555, P = 0.039) were risk factors for autonomic dysfunction according to the COMPASS-31 assessment. While hypertension (OR = 5.747, 95% CI: 1.186-27.862, P = 0.030) and elevated platelet-to-albumin ratio (PAR) (OR = 1.256, 95% CI: 1.025-1.540, P = 0.028) were identified as independent risk factors for autonomic dysfunction based on the CARTs results. Combining the findings from COMPASS-31 and CARTs revealed that older age (OR = 1.133, 95% CI: 1.015-1.264, P = 0.027) and vascular invasion (OR = 7.706, 95% CI:1.391-42.684, P = 0.019) were also independent risk factors for autonomic dysfunction. In conclusion, our findings reveal that these specific factors related to gastrointestinal cancers significantly influence autonomic nervous function. It is essential to evaluate autonomic nervous function and its associated risk factors in patients with gastrointestinal malignancies, which provide new insights into the intervention strategies for cancer diseases.
Keywords: gastrointestinal cancer, Autonomic nervous function, COMPASS-31, CARTs, Bray F, Maryanovich M, Huo R, He K
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 18 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Wang, Peng, Feng, Li, Jiang, Wu and Deng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Chunlin Wang, Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510515, Guangdong Province, China
Yu Peng, Department of Neurology, Guangzhou First People's Hospital, Guangzhou, 510180, China
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