Mayer waves can be defined as arterial blood pressure (AP) oscillations at frequencies slower than respiratory frequency and which show the strongest, significant coherence (strength of linear coupling between fluctuations of two variables in the frequency domain) with efferent sympathetic nervous activity (SNA).
In humans, AP oscillations which meet these properties have a characteristic frequency of approx.
[1] The hemodynamic basis of Mayer waves are oscillations of the sympathetic vasomotor tone of arterial blood vessels, because Mayer waves are abolished or at least strongly attenuated by pharmacological blockade of alpha-adrenoreceptors.
[1] It has been suggested that Mayer waves trigger the liberation of endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) by cyclic changes of vascular shear stress which could be beneficial to end organ functioning.
[1] Mayer waves are correlated with heart rate variability.