Feb 28, 2026
REVEAL: Standard Operating Procedure for Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity - Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Analysis
This protocol is a draft, published without a DOI.
- Roman Tyshynsky1
- 1University of Minnesota
Protocol Citation: Roman Tyshynsky 2026. REVEAL: Standard Operating Procedure for Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity - Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Analysis. protocols.io https://protocols.io/view/reveal-standard-operating-procedure-for-muscle-sym-cxdexi3e
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: July 18, 2023
Last Modified: February 28, 2026
Protocol Integer ID: 85126
Keywords: Microneurography, autonomic, muscle sympathetic nerve activity, REVEAL, VNS, vagus nerve stimulation, reflex, standard operating procedure for muscle sympathetic nerve activity, heart rate analysis this protocol detail, muscle sympathetic nerve activity, reveal common study protocol, analysis of blood pressure, heart rate analysis, heart rate data, autonomic testing protocol, standard operating procedure, reveal, protocol detail, blood pressure
Funders Acknowledgements:
NCCIH
Grant ID: 1U54AT012307
Abstract
This protocol details the steps for processing and analysis of blood pressure and heart rate data gathered during the REVEAL Common Study Protocol's Autonomic Testing protocol.
Materials
LabChart software (ADInstruments)
Excel software (Microsoft)
Troubleshooting
LabChart
Open up the “Study milestones” file on Box so that you can see whether there are notes about any of the time periods (e.g. one was short, a comment was missing, etc.)
Open a cut LabChart file. Save immediately in the participant’s “Annotated” folder by adding “_annotated” to the file name.
Go into the Data Pad. Add “Selection Start” and “Selection End” to rows Q and R.
Click “Multiple Add to Data Pad” and find the following time points of interest:
For the rest files: Sample 60.0 s every 60.0 s.
For the baseline and isometric hand grip, post-exercise circulatory occlusion, and head-up tilt test files: Sample 1.0 s every 1.0 s.
Click “Add.”
Go to the Data Pad view. The columns you want are E (SBP), F (DBP), and G (HR).
There might not be HR data for the first and/or last time segment. If that is the case, go back to the Chart view.
Add the Selection Start and Selection End mini windows to the Chart view.
Select the time period for the missing heart rate. (You might need to make it a little shorter than one minute; try starting a couple of seconds late.)
Go back into Data Pad; the HR value will be in row 1.
Note
You will probably just need to omit the first HR value for the 1-second data selections.
Baseline, Handgrip, PECO, and HUT files
In the Handgrip, PECO, and HUT files, remove the segments of data in which the Non-Invasive Blood Pressure (NIBP) was calibrating.
To make it easier to view BP/HR and time values simultaneously, change column F to Selection Start and column G to Selection End.
Bring up the Data Pad and Chart views so they are side by side.
Scroll through the Chart view. When you find a calibration, locate the approximate time at which it occurs.
Double-click on that time in the Data Pad; doing this will gray-out the corresponding data in the Chart.
Click around that area until you know which rows in the Data Pad correspond to calibrations.
Using the cell selection option, highlight the SBP, DBP, and HR values in those rows.
Clear the contents of those cells.
Excel
Open the “NIBP BP HR data” Excel file.
Add the participant’s study ID number.
Rest Files
Go back to the LabChart file. In the Data Pad, use the cell selection option to select the columns for SBP, DBP, and HR. Copy this selection.
Paste the selection in a blank section of the Excel spreadsheet. Replace any missing HR values as needed.
Copy the SBP values. Right-click in the first cell you want to paste them in, and use the “transpose” option.
Drag down the calculated average value from the row above.
Repeat for DBP and HR, and calculate the MAP values.
Baseline, IHG, PECO, and HUT files
Paste the values from LabChart into the appropriate sheet in the Excel file (you might need to make a new sheet).
Note
Use previously analyzed sheets as templates to guide your calculations.
Paste the SBP, DBP, and HR columns, including the column headers. Also paste the Selection Start and Selection End columns.
You can ignore rows that don’t contain a full second.
Find the average value for SBP, DBP, and HR for each time segment.
Calculate the MAP for each time segment and the average for each variable.
BOX
Upload the LabChart files to Box (to the “Annotated” folder—make a new folder for each participant).
Upload the Excel file to Box (to the “Data analysis” folder).