title: Cardiovascular responses of individuals with type A behavior pattern and parental coronary heart disease.
abstract: Cardiovascular and other responses of stress of subjects considered to be at risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) were studied in order to evaluate two hypothesized pathways in the link between CHD risk factors and the disease process. Forty-seven male subjects with and without a parental history of CHD and with either the Type A or Type B behavior pattern were exposed to two psychological stressors (reaction time and Stroop Color-World test) and one physical stressor (isometric hand grip). Subjects with a parental history of CHD showed larger finger pulse amplitude responses to the two psychosocial stressors, and Type A subjects had larger diastolic blood pressure responses to all three stressors. These results indicated that subjects at greater risk for CHD had more substantial peripheral vascular responses to the stressors compared to low risk subjects; there were no differences in sympathetic cardiac responses related to contractility. The results are discussed in terms of potential mediating mechanisms in the development of CHD.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior; D001794:Blood Pressure; D002319:Cardiovascular System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011674:Pulse; D011930:Reaction Time; D012306:Risk; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000503:physiopathology*