Cardiac and blood pressure responses to mental stress in reactive hypertensives.
To study the haemodynamic response to a standardized mental stress, we measured ascending aorta velocity using Doppler ultrasonography in 20 reactive ("white-coat") hypertensives and 20 age and sex matched normal controls (NC) familiar with the hospital setting. Reactive hypertensives (RH) had 3 office diastolic BP recordings between 90-110 mmHg and ambulatory BP less than 140/90 mmHg. The cardiac response to mental arithmetic was greater in RH than NC (minute distance, RH: +36.7 +/- 40.2% vs NC: +10.3 +/- 19%, p less than 0.05; peak velocity, RH: +8.4 +/- 16.5% vs NC: -1.4 +/- 11.9%, p less than 0.05), and there was a different peripheral resistance response (RH: -12.2 +/- 24.2% vs NC: +6.5 +/- 22%, p less than 0.05). We suggest that subjects with reactive hypertension have a strong cardiac response to mental stress and this could be a characteristic of this condition.
Pannarale
G
G
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, U.K.
Isea
J E
JE
Coats
A J
AJ
Conway
J
J
Sleight
P
P
D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*