Cardiovascular Response to Mental Stress Tests and the Prediction of Blood Pressure

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that increased physiological responses (i.e., cardiovascular reactivity) to a stressor or stressors may increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD) including increased blood pressure (BP) or hypertension. However, many prospective studies have examined the hemodynamic reactions to laboratory stress tests and CVD in Western countries and only a few studies have examined with varying durations of follow-up in the same sample studies. In addition, still relatively little is known about cardiovascular reactivity in Asian populations. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether cardiovascular responses to psychological stressors remained a significant predictor of 40-month follow-up among initially normotensive participants in Thailand, Asia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Hemodynamic parameter was measured at rest, during, and after mental arithmetic, a speech task, and a cold pressor task. Ninety-five healthy normotensive male and female participants were reevaluated BP at 40 months later. RESULTS: Regression analyses indicated that after adjustment for baseline BP, initial age, sex, body mass index, and family history of CVD, heightened systolic BP (SBP) responses to mental arithmetic was associated with increased future SBP (ΔR(2) = 0.04, P = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: Therefore, these findings suggest that cardiovascular reactivity remains a prediction of future BP and may play a role in the development of hypertension and CVD.