Diminished pulse pressure response to psychological stress: early precursor of essential hypertension?
An excessive blood pressure response to mental stress is a widely reported characteristic of young normotensive offspring of hypertensive parents. At odds with these reports are data from a large biracial study showing that high risk adolescent offspring had diminished pulse pressure under mental stress and no evidence of greater blood pressure reactivity. We examined this apparent contradiction in a similar but larger sample of 213 normotensive adolescents, comparing blood pressure and heart rate responses to video game, mirror drawing, mental arithmetic, interview, and physical exercise in high- and low-risk offspring. Results replicated the diminished pulse pressure finding, suggesting it is characteristic of African Americans and is evoked by behavioral tasks that entail skeletal-motor inhibition. Submaximal physical exercise failed to discriminate between offspring groups. Possible biologic correlates of diminished pulse pressure in black adolescents with "high normal" blood pressure warrant further investigation.
Ewart
C K
CK
Health Services Research and Development Center, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, MD.
Kolodner
K B
KB
D000293:Adolescent; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D011674:Pulse / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors