Cardiac and blood pressure responses to mental stress in reactive hypertensives.
AI Summary
Key Findings
Abstract
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.
Affiliation
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, U.K.
External References
- PubMed ID:
- 2022068
Comments
Sign in or create a free account to join the conversation.
Sign in to commentBe the first to comment.