Cardiovascular Responses to Stress: I. Measures of Myocardial Response and Relationship to High Resting Systolic Pressure and Parental Hypertension

ABSTRACT A comparison of pre‐ejection period (PEP), heart rate (HR), and systolic (SBP) and diastolk (DBP) blood pressure responses to the cold pressor test and a pseudo‐shock avoidance reaction time task was performed in 183 young men. These tasks differ in the extent to which they evoke enhanced myocardial and vascular adrenergic activity. Decreases in PEP were more pronounced during the reaction time task, while DBP increased more during the cold pressor test. MR and SBP responses did not differentiate the two tasks. PEP decreases occurred in the absence of any apparent increase in cardiac preload or decrease in afterload. Parental hypertension as determined by physician reports was associated with higher SBP across all conditions. A subgroup of individuals (15%) showed SBP levels >140 mm Hg when typical clinical stethoscopic determinations were made, but less than half as many showed such elevations during a more extended resting baseline using remotely operated devices. High stethoscopic SBP was associated with greater cardiovascular responses to the stressors, while high SBP during the extended baseline was not.