Age-related changes in circulatory responses to short-term shaker stress were investigated in conscious spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). Hemody-namics (microspheres) were measured at 8, 24, 48, and 96 weeks of age, and plasma catecholamines were measured at 8 and 96 weeks. At rest, elevated mean arterial pressure was associated with unaltered cardiac index and heart rate in SHR compared with WKY at all ages. Regional blood flow was largely similar in both strains, except for a reduced renal flow in 96-week-old SHR. Cardiac index and most regional blood flow tended to or did decline in both strains between 8 and 96 weeks. Plasma catecholamines were similar in both strains at 8 and 96 weeks. Shaker stress evoked responses similar to defense reactions in both strains. The incremental responses in mean arterial pressure, heart rate, cardiac index, and cerebral, skeletal muscle, and myocardlal flow and the decremental responses in splanchnic, renal, and skin flow were greater in SHR than in WKY, particularly at 8 weeks. Most of these responses tended to or did decline between 8 and 96 weeks in both strains. The plasma catechola-mine responses were also greater in SHR at 8 and 96 weeks, and they did not differ in either strain between these ages. Thus, circulatory and sympathoadrenal reactivity to acute stress were enhanced in SHR compared with WKY, independently of age. Yet circulatory reactivity declined more or less with age in both strains, despite the absence of age differences in sympathoadrenal reactivity. This dissociation may suggest altered cardiovascular response to acute stress-evoked sympathoadrenal stimulation, particularly in old SHR. (Hypertension 9: 362-370, 1987) KEY WORDS • shaker stress * systemic and regional hemodynamics • plasma catecholamines • spontaneously hypertensive rats • Wistar-Kyoto rats • age B OTH systemic and regional hemodynamics are altered in the presence of hypertension' 12 and with age.