Cardiovascular and norepinephrine responses of men and women to two cold pressor tests

Abstract

Two types of cold pressor tests were used to study gender differences in cardiovascular and plasma catecholamine responses. Ten male and ten female, young, healthy Caucasian subjects participated. The tests consisted of (1) 5 degrees C air blown at 3.5-4 m/s onto part of the face for 4 min and (2) the open right hand immersed to the wrist in water at 5 degrees C for 4 min. Heart rate, blood pressure (BP), and venous plasma norepinephrine were collected before, during, and 5 min after the 4 min of cold exposures. Test order was decided by a Latin square design, and the subjects rested in a quiet room for 30 min between the two tests. All parameters demonstrated significant (p less than 0.01) increases from rest during the cold tests. Gender differences were significant (p less than 0.01) in diastolic and systolic BP in each test with the males having a greater response, but gender differences were not found in heart rate or norepinephrine concentration. The study demonstrated that gender differences exist in the blood pressure responses to local cold, but that the mechanisms involved do not include a parallel difference in heart rate or venous plasma norepinephrine concentration.

Beta-Adrenergic Blockade and Voice: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial

“…It is theorized that this may have been secondary to a wide range of resting HR (67-103 beats per minute), possibly indicating an increase in resting sympathetic tone for at least some of the females at baseline. This difference in the HR response to pressor was statistically significant (P < 0.0303), and may be consistent with reports in the literature [44][45][46][47] with regard to gender differences in the cold pressor response.…”

Ice-Water Hand Immersion Causes a Reflex Decrease in Skin Temperature in the Contralateral Hand

“…McLean et al [17] reported that males have a greater pressor response to a cold pressor test than females, whereas Jones et al [18] reported that the cardiovascular and muscle sympathetic nerve responses to a cold pressor test were the same between the two groups. We observed that males, but not females, showed the significant pressor response to ice-water immersion.…”

Blood pressure and thermal responses to whole body cold exposure in mildly hypertensive subjects

“…Heart rate may be increased, decreased or remain unchanged, depending on the cooling rate and cold exposure time (Granberg, 1991). Face cooling increases blood pressure (Gavhed et al, 2000;Ma¨kinen et al, 2001), while the heart rate is decreased (Gavhed et al, 2000;Ma¨kinen et al, 2001), increased (McLean et al, 1992) or without change (Kilgour and Carvalho, 1994).…”