Cardiovascular and Sympathetic Responses to a Mental Stress Task in Young Patients With Hypertension and/or Obesity

Abstract

Present study was aimed to investigate sympathetic responses to mental stress with hypothesis that the presence of obesity in patients with hypertension has a modifying effect. Young male subjects, 8 with hypertension grade I, with BMI25 kg/m2 (HT), 10 with hypertension grade I, and BMI30 kg/m2 (HT OB), 14 healthy controls with BMI30 kg/m2 (OB), and 13 healthy controls with BMI25 kg/m2 (C) underwent the Stroop test. ECG was recorded continuously to evaluate heart rate variability (HRV). Blood pressure (BP) and catecholamine concentrations were measured at baseline, at the end of mental stress test and 15 min thereafter. Patients with HT demonstrated increased adrenaline concentrations and enhanced stress-induced noradrenaline release compared to that in healthy controls. In obese subjects, stress-induced increase of systolicBP was lower compared to lean individuals. Stress exposure induced a significant rise in the low frequency power component of HRV, however the increase was lower in the HT OB group compared to C. Obesity in patients with hypertension did not lead to a different reaction in comparison with lean hypertensive subjects. The present data demonstrate higher sympathoadrenal activity in early-stage of hypertension. Obesity is connected with higher resting systolicBP and modifies the HRV response to mental stress.

Highly sensitive index of sympathetic activity based on time-frequency spectral analysis of electrodermal activity

“…Low-frequency components of HRV have been shown to increase significantly during the Stroop task (12,19,58). We found that HRVLF, but not HRVLFn, significantly increased between baseline and the Stroop task.…”

Analysis of Reproducibility of Noninvasive Measures of Sympathetic Autonomic Control Based on Electrodermal Activity and Heart Rate Variability

“…This suggests that the central autonomic mechanisms elicited by HUT produce highly consistent effects on the low-frequency innervations of the heart. Likewise, some previous studies have found a significant increase in HRVLF components in response to the Stroop task [58], [59]. The opposite results have also been reported [38].…”

Heart–brain interactions during social and cognitive stress in hypertensive disease: A multidimensional approach

“…Our multimodal approach encompasses measurements of a critical HRV feature (LF/HF ratio), neurophysiological (HEP), and neuroanatomical correlates (voxel-based morphometry [VBM]). Considering previous findings (Wirtz et al, 2006;Lane et al, 2009;Thayer et al, 2012;MacKinnon et al, 2013;Schulz et al, 2013;Garafova et al, 2014;Kleckner et al, 2017;Yoris et al, 2018;Mocayar Marón et al, 2019), we predicted that HTD patients would exhibit significantly increased and undifferentiated HRV (LF/HF ratio) during baseline and acute mental stress induced through the TSST. In this sense, higher HRV was expected to be accompanied by increased HEP modulations, associated to allostatic/interoceptive dysregulations.…”

“…This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved First, HTD patients exhibited increased LF/HF ratio during baseline, which has been associated to basal sympathetic hyperactivity and parasympathetic withdrawal (Wirtz et al, 2006;Madsen et al, 2008;Xhyheri et al, 2012;Garafova et al, 2014). This pattern is indicative of basal autonomic imbalance.…”

“…While that may seem at odds with our findings, most of these studies used autonomic measures that differ from the present HRV index. Also, studies that use the LF/HF ratio tracked markedly younger samples (characterized by increased sympathetic activity) and suboptimal stress-inducing methods (Ruediger et al, 2004;Garafova et al, 2014). Moreover, during the stress period, the lack of…”