[Blood pressure reactivity to emotional stress in uncomplicated forms of hypertension (author's transl)]

Pressor effects from daily events and laboratory complex stimuli relating personality factors

Our preliminary research has attempted to establish a series of methods to study the complex interactions occurring between pressor reactivity and personality profile. Ten untreated mild hypertensives (age 42.9 +/- 8) without damaged target organs were recruited from an outpatient hypertension center along with an equal number of normotensive volunteers (age 38.2 +/- 8.1). We performed a sequence of stressor types under laboratory conditions (sensory perceptual activities, psychomotor responses, and cognitive behavior) following an order ranging from inferior levels to superior levels of systemic integration. The subjects also underwent a 24-h automatic noninvasive blood pressure recording which took into account the situational reactivity. They filled in MMPI and STAI questionnaires before and after the stressor batteries. Only the sensory-perceptual test (Stroop color test modified), the arithmetic test, and the psychomotor test provoked a significant increase in blood pressure and, in the latter test, also a significant increase of the heart rate. The test batteries' mean differences were not significant between the two groups. Similarly, the answers to the trait-anxiety questionnaires did not allow us to make a substantial division between normotensive and hypertensive subjects. On the contrary, the situational anxiety questionnaires showed a significant difference in the score reading preceding and following a task performed by the hypertensive subjects. We observed significant differences for both systolic and diastolic 24-h blood pressure data in transition from a working situation to the sleeping period. However, there was not a significant difference in hypertensive blood pressure readings recorded during work and at home.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Basal blood pressure variability and reactivity of blood pressure to emotional stress in essential hypertension

Blood pressure variability under basal conditions and blood pressure reactivity to emotional stress were studied in 38 hypertensives and 13 normotensives. Systolic basal blood pressure variability correlated with systolic blood pressure reactivity. Variability increased with higher basal blood pressure. Thus in the hypertension group the blood pressure variability was greater than in the normotension group. Besides, the hypertension group showed a greater reactivity of systolic blood pressure to emotional stress, too. An influence of age on basal blood pressure, blood pressure variability, and reactivity could be evaluated; but no influence of sex on these parameters was detected. The results indicate that variability and reactivity of blood pressure can be referred to a common central nervous blood-pressure-regulating mechanism. As both parameters are increased in hypertension, a greater lability of blood pressure must be assumed. This greater lability may be attributed to a stronger neurogenic influence or to structural changes of peripheral blood vessels.