Men at risk for hypertension show elevated vascular resistance at rest and during mental stress

Abe F. Marrero, Mustafa Al'Absi, Gwendolyn A. Pincomb, William R. Lovallo

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

Men at risk for development of hypertension may show elevated blood pressureat rest and during work on mental stressors. We examined which component of blood pressure, vascular resistance or cardiac output, accounted for raised blood pressures seen in a high-risk, normotensive sample. Parental history of hypertension and resting systolic blood pressures were used to categorize subjects into high (n = 19) and low (n = 14) risk groups. Blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, stroke volume, and vascular resistance were measured during rest, mental arithmetic, and reaction time. Compared to low risk subjects, the high risk men had significantly higher blood pressures accompanied by higher vascular resistances at rest and during mental stress. The groups had negligible differences in heart rate, stroke volume, and cardiac output. This pattern of results implicates vascular resistance as the dominant element in altered blood pressure control in these young men at high risk for hypertension.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)185-192
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Psychophysiology
Volume25
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 1997

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Supported by Grants HL-07640 and HL-32050 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Bethesda, MD) and from the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Research Service.

Keywords

  • Blood pressure
  • Hypertension risk
  • Impedance cardiography
  • Mental arithmetic
  • Reaction time
  • Vascular resistance

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